What do you know?
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: she had sacrificed everything for them. her health, her happiness, her well being and they had killed her. now she's been sent back to the begining to start over again with new and intresting abilities. but does she want to bother living for them again?
1. Chapter 1

Okay!

This is partually inspired by the prince of persia movie and a song called 'the mission' by Pusifer.

I sort of liked the whole sands of time thing. But I also sort of liked the 'What do you know?' thing too.

This is going to be heartbreaking in some places, and just odd in others. So bear with me.

_Please._

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Uzu stared at the faces of the people who had once been her friends through the blood and dirt on her face.

Sakura pushed her way to the front of the group and stared at her, her expression full of hatred and malice. "You-" She pointed at the blond. Her former team mate, her friend, the one that she had come to kill. "You bitch. Look what you've done to the village!" Sakura yelled as tears slipped down her face. Uzu looked around the barren wasteland around her in disbelief. There was no way that she could have done this.

No matter how much she might have wanted to destroy everything in rescent years, she just would'nt have done this. Uzu turned her head to look at Sakura again, intending to tell her that she would'nt and could'nt have destroyed everything.

She had just come back from a mission and had wanted to stop and visit Kakashi, and her childrens graves outside of the village. She had been sitting there for the past five days, just doing nothing.

"I didn't do this Sak-" Sakura moved so fast that she didn't even see her. Her hand connected to her cheek with the force of a brick being thrown at her head, spreading fire across her face, cracking the bones in her cheek and jaw.

"Don't lie you monster-" Sakura shrieked at her. Uzu stumbled back and blinked back fresh tears. In all the year she had known Sakura, she had never heard her call her a monster before. But then again Sakura didn't know her very well. None of them did. None of them had ever bothered to try to get to know her outside of work.

And many of them had pulled away from her after the Sauske incident, all of them believing that she had done what she had done out of jealousy.

If they had bothered to get to know her better, they would have known that she was'nt so petty.

"You've been planning this for a long time have'nt you? Planning to pick us off and destroy everything!"

Uzu shook her head no. She had never planned to do anything to them. Even though many of them had become the things that made her wake up screaming at night. Even though she was often too afraid to be close to soem of them any more, she had never planned to do anything.

Uzu didn't say anything as Sakura let out an enraged scream and ran at her with a kunai in hand. Uzu's eyes widened in alarm as she paled and stepped back out of the pinkette's way, trying to avoid being hurt anymore. But she was tired, and her body already wounded, the kunai sliced through the air dangerously close to her neck as Sakura slashed at her, pushing her back towards the others.

Uzu glanced over her shoulder at the others and frowned when she caught them taking up a formation behind her with weapons drawn. Ah. So they were going to help Sakura kill her. She turned back to Sakura and felt her lips curve up in a feral smile. Well, if they thought so damn badly of her, then fuck them. She'd take them with her into the next world.

She stopped moving and let Sakura's blade slip through her ribs at an thirty degree angle and saw the flash of malicious intent on Sakura's face. The sheer savage joy of having managed to hurt her. Something snapped in Uzu's mind and she grabbed the woman, placing her hands on both sides of her head and snapped her neck without a second thought.

Everyone cried out and looked at her in shock and rage.

Uzu smiled sweetly, really did they honestly expect her to die without killing any of them in turn? Cause if so then they were fools.

"I can't believe you people... I bloodied my hands to protect you. I sacrificed my happiness, my health and well being for you. I kept all of you alive, and made sure that you were safe and well, that you had someplace to come home too after each and every mission that you went on, and this-" She turned to look at them, her eyes glittering scarlet like the stain spreading across her shirt as she stared at them.

"This is the thank you that I get. Really?"

She looked from one face, then another. Her eyes landing on Shikamaru, her oldest and most favorite friend. He had been the first to turn on her. The day that Asuma had died he had come over to her apartment and strangled her until she had lost conciousness then raped her repetedly and then left. He had visited her every night for six months after that. Always beating her, strangling her and doing other distasteful things to her. Calling her a monster, a loser, telling her that she was better off dead, yet refused to let her kill herself.

Rage swelled in her chest, and the dam inside broke. All of the things that she had been felling for the past nine years, all of the hatred towards them, all of her anger and rage. They had betray her. Used her. Hurt her and left her hollowed out and dead inside. _Traitors. Vipers. Fools! _

They didn't deserve to live.

None of them did.

"You brought this on yourself Uzu." Shikamaru said as he stepped forward and she laughed. It really was very funny how easily they seemed to be able to blame her for everything. So she laughed. And laughed. And laughed, even as she felt their weapons piercing and slicing and cutting into her body. She laughed, as her heart broke for the very last time and sank to her knees bleeding.

Finally she managed to collect herself enough to look up at them, her blood running down her chest, her back, her arms, down onto the ground. Staining the ground a deep scarlet as she stared at them. There was no flicker of guilt or remorse in any of them.

_And I wasted my whole life on them. Pathetic._

She bit back a silent snarl and gave Shikamaru a creepy smile as he grabbed a hand full of her hair and tipped her head back, his bloody kunai going against her throat. "Any last words?" Shikamaru asked coldly and for some reason that she didn't understand she snorted and asked.

"Your not going to rape me anymore? No? Good then pay attention. Everything that happens from this point on...is all your fault." He slit her throat at the same exact moment that she broke the seal and the world fell into darkness.


	2. back to the begining

_Kyubbi stared down at her kit in sorrow, the child hadn't deserved this fate. _

_"Oh kit...my poor little heart broken kit." The demon crooned as she wrapped her massive body around Uzu's and laid down, curling her tails around the small body and lifting it up off of the ground so that it could lay her corpse on it's front paws. Kyubbi licked and nuzzled the humans body. Trying to clean her up and show her the affection that she had so desperately needed in life but had been denied by everyone. _

_The murdering traitors had been delt with. Their bodies littered the barren land of ashes and sorrow, where the once beautiful leaf village had stood. _

_It was so sad that her kit had met this end. Especially when she had done nothing wrong. _

_The leaf village had been destroyed by a demon, that much was true. But not by her or her kit. _

_The scent of the demon was strong in the ashes of the burned bodies and buildings. _

_"Forgive me kit. I should never have attacked the village..." Kyubbi cried as she nuzzled the blonde's body again and pulled back in shock when Uzu's body started twitching and the girl opened her eyes. _

_'She's still alive?' Kyubbi thought in shock as she looked down at her kit. Uzu was dying, she could tell by the amount of blood that she lost, the gaping wound in her neck spurted blood with each breath that she struggled to take. _

_"Kit." _

_Uzu mouthed her name, 'Kyubbi...' _

_Why was she still alive? Uzu wondered as she tried to breathe. The demon nuzzled her again, tears slipping from the corner of it's eyes. _

_A demon crying for a human. How odd. Uzu mused as she reached up a small bloody hand and touched the large fox demon's nose. Kyubbi closed her eyes and made a sighing sound before her hand fell back to her body. She didn't have much longer to live. A few more seconds at best. _

_"Kit. Listen to me, do you want me to save you?" _

_Uzu tried to respond, to tell the demon that she just wanted to rest now. To be with her husband and her children. She had fought so hard for so long without anyone to help her, and simply couldn't do it anymore, but she was slipping in and out of consciousness and couldn't get the words out. _

_She was just too tired and weak to try._

_Kyubbi watched her for a moment before making the choice for her. She wanted her kit to be happy. And she was willing to use any means necessary to see that Uzu got what she needed. _

_"Close your eyes kit, and when you wake up...this will all just be a really bad dream."_

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It was the most annoying sound in the world. Uzu thought as her eyes snapped open and she glared at the source, at first not even realising that she had been asleep. Or that the thing she was picking up and chucking across the room was her _old_ alarm clock. From back when she was a kid. It hit the wall across the room and shattered like glass, little bits of plastic and wire spraying all over the floor as she sat back on her bed and rubbed her eyes.

Wiping away the moisture from the tears that she had been crying in her sleep. Everything had been so vivid and real. She looked around, squinting slightly in the sunlight that filtered through her window. The sight of her pale green and pink flowered bedroom curtains snapping her out of her funk with the force of a hammer to the head. She stared at the curtains for a second before climbing out of bed and walking across the room and ripping them down and stared out of the window and stared in shock as she moved just a bit closer to the window and caught her reflection in the window and screamed in horror.

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Iruka had come to this apartment building to see if Uzu was okay and to see if he could convince her to return to school since she had missed a week in a half already. He also wanted to apologize to the girl for acting so cold towards her at school, especially since he knew that she was alone in the world and needed him. But for some reason that he couldn't explain, he kept doing the wrong thing.

And now because of him, Uzu had been trying to ditch learning at the school because she couldn't stand being around everyone who seemed to be out to get her. And they were, he didn't bother playing dumb about that. He knew very well what the other kids had been doing to the girl.

Knew about the beatings and the malicious pranks. And though he knew that she didn't deserve it and had tried to stop it, he could seem to protect her from all of it. There was simply too many people, both teachers and students alike that were out for her blood and he just couldn't stop them all.

Just one more thing that he had to apoligize for it would seem.

He looked around nervously silently debating with himself. Should he or shouldn't he knock on the door. On one hand, he really wanted to know that she was okay. And on the other he was worried about how she might react to his presence here. Would she lash out? Maybe try to hurt him like he had hurt her? He doubted it considering that she was such an affectionate child but he _did _worry never the less.

He lifted his hand to knock on the door when he heard a loud ear splitting scream followed by several loud crashes and thumps and found himself kicking in the door before he realised what he was doing, and running through the apartment to the bedroom and grabbing the small, shaking figure standing in the middle of the floor and spun her around.

There was blood all over her night shirt, her hands, some trickled down from her nose and her skin-

It looked so frighteningly pale.

There was semi closed wounds on her neck, her chest and other places. Iruka paled as he took a quick stock of all of the semi closed wounds and picked her up and ran out the back door and headed to the hospital, unsure of what else that he could do for her.


	3. reflecting

Sarutobi looked over the medical file in his hand with a frown.

Just what the hell had the villagers been doing to Uzu? He wondered as he walked through the hall until he reached hospital room 307 and opened the door and stepped inside to find Uzu sitting up in the bed, still looking pale, her face hidden by her soft pale hair, an IV in her arm, and Iruka was sitting next to the bed looking worried.

The younger man looked away from the girl and looked at the Kage, and Sarutobi had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from asking what Iruka had been doing at Uzu's apartment this morning. He found it just a bit ironic and strangly convenent that the chunin had been in the child's apartment when she had been wounded and in need of help. To him it was more than a little suspicious. "Iruka, wait outside please." Sarutobi said in an slightly colder than usual voice.

Iruka flinched at his tone and looked back at Uzu and got up out of his seat. "If you need me, Uzu. I'll be outside." Iruka said gently as he walked over to the door and slipped out into the hall and closed the door silently behind him and Sarutobi turned and bared his teeth in a snarl now that the younger man was out of the room and moved to sit on the edge of the bed and gently took Uzu's hand in his.

"Uzu-chan...little hime, can you tell me what happened?" Sarutobi asked gently as he rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.

She didn't say anything. And for a moment he feared that maybe she was afraid to speak out against her attackers, but that was'nt the case because she finally looked at him, her eyes rimmed in red from crying and dark bruise like smudges under the red from where she had'nt been sleeping.

Her normally warm eyes looked lifeless for a second before she shook her head. "I don't know what happened."

It was'nt a lie. Uzu never lied to him.

Yet he found it very hard to beleive that she didn't know how she had ended up stabbed seventy three times in vital area's and had her throat slit. Sure someone could have used a jutsu to knock her out, but there were'nt any jutsu's that would work so quickly that Uzu would'nt be able to either see, hear, or wound her attackers before slipping into unconsiousness.

She would have felt something and woken up. Even though the wounds looked like they were several days old and half healed, they must still hurt. "You have no idea how you got these wounds? None at all?"

She shook her head as she mentally went over everything in her mind. She remembered Sakura, Shino, Neji, Hinata, Kiba, Ino, Choji, Lee, Tenten, and Shikamaru. She remembered killing Sakura, the sound of her neck breaking echoing in her numb mind over and over and over again.

She remembered them wounding her, carving her into pieces and breaking her heart with their cruelty. She recalled Kyubbi, breaking the seal, and then nothing else. Nothing but seeing the demon leaning over her crying.

_Was it a dream?_ It felt too real to be a dream. Could she have really died? Had Kyubbi done something to send her back to the past? To start again? She felt fingers lightly touching her cheek and jumped and moved away from the hand touching her and looked at Sarutobi with wide frightened eyes. To be perfectly honest she had forgotten that he was there in the room, she had been so busy trying to sort things out.

He looked at her, a shuttered expression on his face though she could feel his sadness. It was almost a tangible, living breathing thing, it was so strong. "Sorry jiji." She muttered as she hung her head again, not wanting him to see her expression. She was still sort of in shock and was worried that he might notice her expression and know that something was wrong.

Sarutobi had been dead. Killed in the attack against the leaf, that Orochimaru had orcistrated. That happened in July...

"What's todays date?" Uzu asked Sarutobi curiously. The elder frowned and studied her for a second, if he thought it strange thats he would ask for the date, he said nothing about it.

"Today is Augest the tenth. You started the academy three weeks ago."

"Oh." So the attack that killed Jiji, would'nt happen for three in a half years. Meaning that she was...

She looked down at her hands and frowned. They looked so much smaller than she remembered. The hands of a child. She growled and reached over to the IV and before her adopted grand father could react, ripped it out and jumped out of bed. "Uzu! What are you doing?" The elder all but yelled, worry and confusion warring in his mind.

Uzu said nothing as she ran over to the door and opened it and ran out. She knew that she should'nt, not when her body was wounded but for some reason that she could'nt explain she just needed to get away and sort things out. Iruka looked suprised when she almost mowed him down, she spared him the briefest glance as she rushed by him, dodging his hands as he reached out to grab her and ran on until she was out of sight.

Sarutobi stood in the door way to her hospital room looking murderous. That girl was going to drive him crazy.

"Did she say who hurt her?" Iruka asked as he came up to the elder. The elder looked at the younger man and frowned.

"Are you asking out of curiosity or concern that she might have told me something that you feel that I should'nt know, Iruka?" Sarutobi asked in a codl tone as he turned his head to look at the brunnette. Iruka flushed and flinched and looked down at his feet. He had thought that the elder was acting strangely around him. The fact that he thought that the school teacher had anything to do with Uzu's wounds, meant that he didn't trust him with her.

Understandable since he had sort of been snubbing her like everyone else. "I'm sorry lord Hokage..."

Sarutobi just snorted and yelled, "Anbu! Retrieve Uzu and bring her back here at once!"

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Uzu ran through the streets, ignoring the dirty looks and the whispering. Really it was pointless to pay attention to it all and she knew that she looked odd wearing the thin icy blue cotton shirt and pants that she had been given to wear back at the hospital, knew that her bandaged wounds were starting to bleed more and more with every step that she took. But she just could'nt stop. She was just a bit weirded out by everything that she was seeing.

The buildings, the people, the plants and animals. Everything was in place. Everything was alive and well and-she must have finally lost her mind.

Yes that was it. She was crazy. Finally driven insane by the villagers, and the years and years and years of cruelty and abuse.

She rounded the corner and stumbled back when she slammed into something or rather someone, and fell on her ass in the dirt and looked up. Her eyes widening in disbelief when she met the suprised stare of Hatake Kakashi and two other jounin. Asuma and Gai.

"Whoa there." Kakashi muttered as he stared down at her. Asuma and Gai stared at her in stunned shock and wondered what she was doing running through the village in bloody hospital clothes.

"Hey isn't she-"

"Quiet Gai." Kakashi snapped in a don't-fuck-with-me tone that Uzu had heard the day that she had told him that she was pregnant with his child, though he had been less imtimidating then. The copy nin held out a hand to help her up, and she looked at it as if it had fangs and might bite her as several Anbu dropped down from the roof tops and surrounded them.

She muttered a swear and got to her feet, giving Kakashi a strange look before she looked at the Anbu. Jiji must really be worried about her to send them after her. "Uzumaki-chan, lord Hokage has asked us to bring you back to the hospital for treatment at once." One of the Anbu said as he stepped forward.

Uzu bared her teeth and growled at him like an animal before snapping, "Touch me, and I'll tear off your arm and beat you with it." The Anbu froze and blinked at her from behind his mask apparently stunned by her attitude. Kakashi and Asuma and Gai were looking equally stunned at the moment.

"Uzumaki-chan, please your wounds are still quite serious. You need to finish the blood transfusion and rest." The Anbu said politely, gently, coaxingly, speaking to her as if she were a child. Trying to appeal to her reason.

"What I need _Genma_ if for you and your friends to walk away and leave me alone." She said in a cold tone as she took a subtle step back as Genma reached up and took off his mask and looked at it then at her. There was no way that she should know him. Or his name. So how did she-

"How did-"

"I know your voice." And that was all the information that he was getting from her.

He sighed and swore, now he would have to wipe her mind to ensure that his Anbu identity was safe. He held his hand out to her, and wiggled his fingers at her, trying the whole 'I'm an adult and you should listen to me' bit. That didn't work either, and he made a frustrated sound. "Uzu...come here and let me and my friends take you back."

"Why should I? So some of your friends can sneak in later today or tonight when I'm out and try to kill me. Thanks but no. I can take care of myself." She said as she took another subtle step back. Genma frowned and looked at his team. They knew that it was forbidden to attack her, they knew what could happen if she died. So why had she-

"Bear, Panther and Linx, they have a nasty habit of forgetting to clean their kunai after attacking me. They like to carry a bloody weapon on them at all times. I can smell my blood on them from here."

Kakashi looked between the girl to the three Anbu that she had just named, his dark blue eye taking in the sudden tensness in their bodies, the smell of their discomfort and anger filling his nose. He could smell the subtle under tones of something else, but could'nt smell it really well from where he was standing.

"She's lying! We've never touched her!" One man yelled and Uzu gave the three a feral smile.

"Dear diary today I was attacked by-"

One of the men made a fatal mistake and panicked, he drew a weapon and tried to cut the girl down, causing the other two to panic and try to run. Gai grabbed one and Asuma took down the other as Kakashi caught the one that had rushed at her, around the neck and yanked him off of his feet and knocked him into the building not even ten feet away with a well placed kick to the stomach and turned to look at the girl, she had an peculiar expression on her face.

And her eyes. So like her father's yet not liek them at all. He could see a million questions in those pretty violet depths before she turned and stared to run. He sighed and hung his head as frustration laced his blood. But of course she would run. She didn't know him or that he would'nt hurt her, so part of him understood why she frustrated him so. Yet that didn't stop him from going after her.

His long legs eating up the distance between them.

Uzu peeked at him over her shoulder and made a funny little sound and applied chakra to her feet to add an extra burst of speed, both startling him and suprising him. They didn't teach things like chakra control in the academy. At least he didn't think they did, but he might be wrong. He added some chakra to his feet and followed her through the village and was thrown for another loop when she used a shadow clone jutsu to create flesh and blood clones and scatter them all over the place.

He nearly tripped and fell as his jaw dropped. _What the hell? _He thought as he silently counted them. One, two, three, four...five hundred and counting. "Jesus Christ..." How had Uzu managed to pull this jutsu off and not use up all of her chakras? Or more to the point, where had she learn this particular jutsu? The multi shadow clone jutsu had been sealed away in a scroll in the Hokage's office years ago when the fourth Hokage had died.

To his knowledge no one was allowed to touch it. Much less read it.

Kakashi growled in irritation and decided to try and find the girl using some of his own jutsu. He reached up and uncovered his sharigan, since it could be used several ways, he figured that he could easily spot her chakra and tell her apart from her clones, or so he had thought. As it turns out Uzu was much smarter than the average child should be and had distributed some of her chakra's evenly among the clones along with her scent, the smell of her blood.

It was as if she knew everything about his tracking abilities and his jutsu's and was trying to throw him off of her trail. And it was starting to tick him off.

There was no way that a kid just starting the academy should be able to do these things! Asuma came running up and nearly tripped over his own feet as he looked around. "Holy shit." He muttered in awe.

_No duh._ Kakashi thought some what angry that a mere child was throwing off his senses in such a way. Asuma looked at him and frowned. "Can you see her?"

"No. The damn brat has her chakra spread out all over the place."

"What about finding her by scent?"

Kakashi shook his head no. "Then what are we gonna do? Lord Hokage wants her captured and returned to the hospital."

"I know-" And he was worried. He had noticed the bloody bandages around the girl's neck and the blood seeping through her shirt, on her chest and some even on her back and sides. All in places where vital area's were located. If this kept up, she could die.

_Unacceptable._ He silently snarled. He would just have to find a way to find and catch the real Uzu.

Uzu stood in an alley several feet from the main road watching the mayhem as she held her hand to her neck. She could feel her blood, warm and sticky seeping through the bandages more and more, felt some of the freshly healed skin tear as she panted. Everything faded in and out and she gave a soft dark laugh. She was probably bleeding to death and all she could do was laugh. God this was funny. This entire situation was funny.

And disturbing.

Words alone could'nt express just how weird and upsetting this situation was to her. She didn't know what to make of anything. Or what to do. Part of her wanted to run like hell out fo the village and never look back, and part of her wanted to latch on to Kakashi, Asuma, Gai or who ever happened to be handy and just cry her heart out.

She sank to the ground as she saw Kakashi run by and sighed in relief and pulled her legs up agaisnt her chest and stared at the red brick wall in front of her while leaning back against the one behind her. She waited about twenty minutes or so and disappaited the clones thinking that Kakashi should be far enough away from where she was by then. She sat there for several minutes before deciding that she should try to brave coming out of her hiding spot. She figured that she could maybe make it to her secret spot outside of the village before she passed out.

She was just starting to peek out of the alley when someone dropped down from the roof of the building that she was leaning against, behind her and grabbed her. One gloved hand settling over her mouth as she was lifted up until her feet came up off of the ground, a steely arm wrapped around her waist. She made a startled sound and kicked her feet, managing to kick the person holding her in the shin hard enough to make him yelp and let her go enough for her to squirm out of his grasp and elbowed him in the stomach then turned and punched him in the face before she realised that she had just hit Asuma.

"You are such a troublesome girl." She heard Kakashi's voice behind her and turned to look at him in wide eyed horror and gasped as she felt her consioucness being pulled by his sharigan as she stumbled a bit before falling forward. Kakashi shifted forward a bit and caught the girl as she gave in to his jutsu and slid into an forced state of unconsiousness as Kakashi looked at Asuma as the man rubbed his jaw and picked himself up off of the ground.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm...fine."

"You sure?" Kakashi asked curiously. Asuma gave the girl a dirty look as he rubbed his jaw a little more.

"Damn girl has a fist like a steel mallet." Asuma said as Kakashi leaned down and picked the girl up and carefully cradled her in his arms and studied the fresh blood coming from under the bandages around her neck. There was more blood than she should be losing, depending on her wounds.

Kakashi made a humming sound, a little bit amused by todays turn of events. He had'nt expected Minato's daughter to be such a talented kid. But she was, and though he hated to admit it. She had more or less kicked their asses.

He looked down at Uzu's pale face and smiled a bit. _Minato, do you see how intresting your girl is?_

He certainly saw how intresting she was and made a mental note to watch her more in the future.

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A week after that particular incident-

Uzu ran out of the hospital scot free. And boy oh boy was she one happy little 'terrorist' as Sarutobi had so affectionatly dubbed her once he got a good look at the bruise on Asuma's jaw, where she had punched him. To say that the Hokage found his son being beaten up by a little girl, and the copy nin out smarted (also by a little girl) amusing, would be the understatment of the century.

Every time he had come to visit her in the hospital, the elder had asked her who her latest victims were.

Not that there had been any. She'd been good and had laid in bed and slept and ate and let her wounds heal while she put little bits and pieces of what had happened before she had woken up in her apartment, together.

So far she had come up with this.

1) She had died almost thirteen years in the future.

After being blames for the total destruction of the leaf village and it's people.

2) Her husband, Kakashi, was alive and well and she was pissed at him for using his sharigan on her.

Even if it had been for her own good, it still pissed her off so much that she was tempted to go find him and smack him good in the back of the head. Or maybe do something much worse. Like tie him up and make him watch her burn his precious porn books.

Maybe she'd do that anyways. God knew that the shit rotted his young and impressionable mind.

3) She didn't know why she was here. But she obviously had her mental facilities and her abilities intact. She had been testing herself off and on, using mostly the small stuff. testing out her shadow clone jutsu, her tansformation jutsu, the resangon, wind shadow jutsu, and one or two small ocular jutsu's. More than a little pleased that the Sharigan that Itachi had gifted her with was still intact. She could use it when Sauske decided to leave the village.

She'd lie as much as she dared if she had too and tell him that she was also an Uchiha if it would bring him back from the brink. Technically it would'nt be a lie. She was his cousin, after all. Just like she was Sakura's cousin.

_Sakura..._

Rage boiled up in her chest, over whelming, and threatening. She''d have to find a way to make Sakura and the others different people from the way that they had been before. She would have to stop Shika from becoming a rapist. Stop Sakura from becoming a traitor. And Kakashi...

She would have to keep him from being captured and placed under that damn genjutsu that had driven him insane and made him kill their children and himself right before her eyes.

It was a lot. Maybe too much for her. God knew that it was stressful and that she would'nt be able to save everyone, hell a majority of them she didn't want to save. But she would never know if things could have been different unless she tried her best to change the future that she knew. She just wished that she didn't have to do it alone.

She walked through the village to the school. It was about noon, meaning that the kids would be outside playing for recess. She reached the school and paused when she saw the kids running, laughing and playing with each other on the play ground and debated on wheather or not she should go up to some of them and try to make nice, but knowing that it would be pointless to try right this moment since many of their young minds had been poisoned against her by their parents, friends and families.

Iruka looked up from one of the kids that had come running up to him and blinked when he saw Uzu standing sixty feet away watching the kids play. He lifted his hand and waved at her, happy to see that she was out of the hospital and out and about again. And wondering if she had plans to rejoin the class.

She gave him a sad smile and waved back then turned and walked away.

She simply didn't want anything to do with them right now.

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Iruka was depressed.

He had every reason to be. The Hokage thought that he had hurt Uzu. And Uzu had all but dropped out of the academy and seemed to want nothing to do with anyone any more. She had all but proven that earlier when she had stood watching the kids play and then turned and walked away.

And that expression that she had had on her face... He could'nt get that sad lonely look out of his mind.

He sighed and looked around as if the answers would come to him right out of the blue, like it would drop out of the sky or something. His dark eyes glancing around before stopping on a small bench under a nice Sakura tree in bloom and walked over to it and sat down and sighed again. "Must you sigh like that? I'm trying to read up here and it's a bit distracting." Someone with a smooth silky voice said from somewhere above him.

Iruka looked up and blinked at the black clad figure sitting on a tree limb directly above his head. "Oh. I'm sorry Mr..."

The man closed the orange covered book in his hands and stuffed it in a weapon's pouch. Ah, so he was a shinobi. Maybe a jounin if the fact that he could hide himself so well among the small sea of sort pink was anything to go by. The guy jumped down from the tree and landed lightly on the balls of his feet next to the bench and looked at Iruka. "No mister. Just call me Kakashi. Or Hatake, or whatever as long as it's not mister." Because hearing himself being addressed as mister made him cringe and feel older than he actually was.

Iruka nodded his head and studied the man. He recalled reading about this person in the bingo book.

Hatake Kakashi, the new white fang of the leaf village. Son of the former white fang Hatake Sakumo. Also known as the Copy Cat nin, and Sharigan Kakashi.

Age-18

Birthday-unknown

Former Anbu captain, retired three years ago.

SSS-rank, weilder of over a thousand jutsu, dangerous. Do Not Engage!

He was slightly less intimidating than he had thought he would be up close. Iruka looked the man over, noting the shockingly pale silvery white hair, the dark mask that covered his face from the nose down, the headband tilted over his left eye. He was tall, just a foot or two taller than Iruka. His build was muscular, yet lean. He had a bit more substance to him than Iruka did since he probably took better care of himself.

Iruka however had the tendency to over think things and worry himself sick. He was a work a holic and often missed out on rest and food because he prefered to work instead of take some time out to rest and relax. It was his way of avoiding others and being dragged into socializing with others. Kakashi looked at the younger man and tilted his head to the side a bit. He looked depressed. Did his girlfriend break his heart or something?

"You look depressed."

Iruka looked back up at him and sighed again. "Am I that easy to read?" Kakashi cocked his head just a bit more and stared at him. He was that easy to read. He was _excrusiatingly_ easy to read. But it was easier to keep an eye on others when they didn't know that you could read them with a look.

"Your sighs gave you away. So mind if I ask what's going on? You_ can_ tell me, I won't tell anyone if you don't want me too." Kakashi said as Iruka nodded and moved over a bit and made room for him on the bench. Kakashi sat down next to him and crossed his legs and leaned back against the back of the bench and made himself comfortable. He found it sort of amusing how he could find tree limbs more comfortable than chairs of any kind.

Even now, he longed for the tree limb that he had just come down from. "It's...one of my students. Uzumaki Uzu..."

Kakashi looked at him, his mind suddenly going from lazy to alert. If this guy was Uzu's teacher then he might have some clue about how she got hurt last week, among other things. He made a mental note to stop by the school a few times so that he could check up on the girl and how she was being treated as he listened to the younger man talk.

"I don't know what to do with her. She stopped coming to school, she does'nt even make contact with the other kids anymore. I went to her place to check up on her and see if I could convince her to come back to school last week and ended up kicking her door down when I heard her screaming-"

Kakashi leaned forward a bit. Did this guy know something about how she had gotten hurt? Had he maybe seen someone suspicious hanging around the apartment or running away form it before he had found Uzu?

"Why was she screaming?"

Iruka looked at him funny. "She had been stabbed seventy something times and had her throat slit. Even if the wounds were days old, she had to have still been in pain. I would scream too if I was in the shape that she was in."

Kakashi was quiet for a second as he went over some things in his mind before asking. "Did you see anyone leave the apartment? Anyone hanging around when you got there?"

"No. No one. I just heard some things being knocked over and her screaming. I didn't hear anything or see anything else." Iruka said as he shook his head. Kakashi nodded and waited for the man to continue.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Sorry that this chapter took so long to write.


	4. bonds

Kakashi was deep in thought as he walked through the village, back towards his apartment. His mind recalling all of the years that he had watched over and protected Uzu from harm. Or rather all the years that he had tried to protect her anyways. He missed the days when he had been an Anbu assigned to watch over the girl. He missed having Uzu curl up in his arms at night and suck her thumb and go to sleep while he read her.

He missed giving her baths (though that had been more of a team effort) and being splashed by the soapy water. He missed waking up in the mornings and finding Uzu curled up asleep on the little make shift bed she had made out of a blanket, at the foot of his bed, holding her favorite stuffed toy. A small fuzzy white plush sheep that she called Baa-baa.

Back then he had known everything about her.

Her favorite color-varied from day to day.

She seemed to have a color system worked out, yet he had found it funny that every Monday and Friday, her favorite color was black.

Her favorite bed time story- Little Nemo, Old Yeller, and Garfield.

Her favorite movies way back then had been- House on haunted hill, Rock A Doodle, Ever After; a Snow white story, White Fang, and Balto. He had sort of liked those movies himself.

Her favorite person- Woofie, the name that she had given his Anbu self.

He had known every ticklish spot on her body. Under her arms and along her stomach and ribs.

He had known every smile. Every fear. Every secret and desire in her little heart. And now...

He knew next to nothing about her now. And that made him long for the closeness and bonds that he used to feel with her. It saddened him to know that she was being hurt and he was so out of touch with her that he hadn't known _how_ badly she was being hurt. It bothered him that he was so out of touch with the only family that he had left, but really there wasn't much that he could do about it aside from what he had been doing to begin with.

Just watch her.

He had told Iruka to be honest and up front with her about how he felt and what he thought of her. It was ironic to him that he had given that sort of advice to the school teacher yet couldn't be up front and honest with her himself. He sighed and ran his finger through his hair, god he was tired. He had been running himself ragged all week trying to figure out who had dared to lay their hands on Uzu and try to kill her by slitting her throat.

_I need to try and relax and get so rest or I won't be any good to anyone. _He thought as he unlocked his apartment door and stepped inside and froze when he caught a whiff of a familiar floral scent as he closed the door and looked around curiously. Either Uzu was in his apartment somewhere (which he seriously doubted because there was no way that she would have been able to get past his traps since they were chakra and seal based) or his mind was playing tricks on him.

He locked the door and slipped off his shoes as he looked around, not really seeing her anywhere but somehow _knowing_ that she was there, hidden from sight, waiting for something. Wondering why she was there. How she had gotten past his traps unharmed? And what she wanted. But most of all he was curious to know why out of all the other places she could have gone, she had come to his place. To him.

He doubted that it was because she remembered him or his apartment. Or how safe she had been here with in these four walls.

He caught a flicker of movement behind the couch and quietly made his way towards the corner when she moved again, this time pushing herself up so that she was standing and looked at him. "I'm not supposed to be here."

A more obvious understatement had yet to be said. But he stayed quiet as he wondered what she would say or do next. "I came here because..." He raised a silver brow at her as her voice trailed off. _Because why? _He wondered curiously. "I just wanted some place to hide out for a while. And I remembered that this was one of the few places that I truly felt safe."

Kakashi was floored. Literally. He was both shocked and flattered that she would remember _something_from their time together when she was a child. "How are you doing? Are your wounds healed?" He asked, concern coloring his tone as he tilted his head and studied her. Her small hand automatically went to her throat, her fingers lightly touching a thin white scar that ran across her jugular before she seemed to realise what she was doing and dropped her hand back to her side and looked away.

"I'm fine. Everything is fine."

Just who was she trying to convince? Him? Or herself? He wondered as he tugged his headband up and slipped it from around his head and set it on the small table next to the the couch. He had to lean a bit to reach it, since she was sort of in the way, but the task was accomplished easily enough. "Then why did you feel the need to come here if everything is fine?" He asked gently as he walked around her to the seat against the wall and sat down in it, his mis matched eyes watching her like a hawk.

She frowned and looked like she wanted to say something, but shook her head instead and looked down at her feet. She was'nt about to cave under the pressure of her own chaotic emotions and tell him that she had come here wanting to see him, or that she loved him. She refused to become so weak that she would'nt be able to survive without seeing him or hearing his voice. He waited for her to answer him, and after several minutes of silence wondered if she even knew why she had come here.

It looked like she did, yet at the same time she seemed totally lost. "Uzu-" He said her name gently and she looked at him, he was leaning forward in his seat staring at her, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands clasped together, dangling between his legs. "Is something wrong? You can tell me if something is." He said softly, coaxingly, hoping to get her to open up to him even if it was just a little bit and tell him something.

"It's all fire and brimstone."

He blinked and frowned at her and started to get up, she scurried back away from the couch and ran over to the door and unlocked it. "Uzu? What do you mean?" What did she mean when she had told him that cryptic phrase? It meant something. Something important, but he didn't really understand.

"It's nothing but the truth Wolf. _Everything_ is fire and brimstone. And I'm stuck in the middle of it with _no_ way out." She said and knew the exact moment that he realised what she was trying to tell him, his face paled under the mask and his eyes widened a bit before they darkened with worry and anger. He was up out of his chair and across the room in seconds. Not that it mattered to her any since she was already gone.

Out the door, around the corner and out of sight before he could do anything more than yell for her to come back.

He snarled behind his mask and made a low feral sound as he slipped back inside of his apartment and slammed the door. "Goddamn it." He growled as he bent down and grabbed his shoes up off of the floor and slipped them on then moved to grab his head band up off of the table and ran out of the door, not bothering to reset the traps before he left.

One word, one sentence slithered through his mind filling him with icy cold dread. Kyubbi. She knew about the Kyubbi. She knew the reason that everyone hated her and hurt her.

And it was tearing him up inside that he couldn't go look for her, no first he had to go and inform the Hokage that someone had broken the law and see what the elder wanted to do about it.


	5. worry

Sarutobi stared at the Copy nin in horror. "_Please _tell me that your joking-" Kakashi glanced up at him as he paced back and forth in front of the Kage's desk. "_Please _tell me that Uzu...my little Uzu isn't running around the village armed with the knowledge that she is the nine tailed demon container._ Please_ tell me that your just fucking with me and trying to play a really, really sick joke. _Please _Kakashi..."

The copy nin stopped pacing and ran his fingers though his hair in frustration, he wanted to snap at the man that he didn't like this either, but snapping at the Hokage was about as wise as sawing off your own hand. Not very wise at all. Still he would give anything right now for this to be a joke. Really he would. He'd give his right arm. His left arm. His Sharigan eye. One of his nuts (the smaller one). Hell, he'd even give up his _soul_ for this to be nothing more than a really bad joke.

But it wasn't.

And he was over a hundred percent positive that Uzu now knew about the Kyubbi being sealed inside of her. He had lived a majority of his Anbu career speaking cryptic words and using codes. Uzu had done the same. She had used cryptic words to tell him that she knew, and she wanted out.

It terrified him to think of what she must be feeling right now. How scared and alone she must feel now that she knew why everyone singled her out and hurt her all the time.

He'd give anything for her childhood and her innocence to remain untouched just a little bit longer.

He'd give anything to be able to tell her that everything was going to be okay, and know that his words weren't a lie. But he couldn't do that. Because he wasn't sure if everything was going to be okay. The words 'I have no way out' echoing in his head until he thought he would break down and start screaming. He hated this. Hated it, hated it, hated it. _Hated. It. _

"Where did she go after telling you this?" Sarutobi asked curiously. Kakashi looked at him agai"I don't know. I wanted to go after her but I knew that I had to come here first."

**_"You left her alone?" _**The Kage all but yelled and quickly slapped a hand over his mouth when the younger man gave him a murderous look, reminding him once and for all that he wasn't the only person who loved Uzu with all his heart.

"Sorry Kakashi. Forgive me, I forgot myself for a second there." The elder said softly, his voice barely above a whisper. Kakashi shrugged it off. He was upset too after all.

"Is there any way that we can find her from here?"

Sarutobi thought for a second and nodded. "Yes. Yes there is. I can use the spying crystal to find her."

"Do it then."

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Uzu stood on top of the mountain staring out over the village in the darkness, the lights below twinkled and sparkled like little white and yellow stars fallen from the night sky. Illuminating the darkness of the earth below. It was beautiful. Breathtaking really. Or at least it used to be that way to her.

She had long grown out of the innocent ideals that she had once carried close to her heart. Now she saw things and people for what they really were. Hideous, ugly, impure. Monsters, demons, humans, they were all alike to her.

All twisted and broken. All foolish and delusional. She swayed forward, dangerously close to the edge and lifted her arms so that they were held high in the air beside her and leaned into the freezing cold breeze that blew along the side of the mountain. The cold air biting into her skin and causing her eyes to tear up. She had been a time when she had used to sit up here. Way up where no one could see her and cry her heart out.

For being left behind, abandoned, hurt and left for dead.

And when she had been done crying she had stared at the edge and wondered what would happen if she threw herself from the top. She had even gone to do that once, but the wind had pushed her small body back almost like a dozen hands lifting her back to safety. She had seen it as a sign from god or whatever and had stopped thinking of dying. Now she knew that she should have thrown herself over and not even thought twice about it.

_Those who betray their friends are trash; those who turn their backs on their friends are worse than trash ._Kakashi's words echoed in her head and she gave a small hysterical laugh.

They had betrayed her. They had been her friends and they had attacked her, blamed her for every little thing gone wrong, and in the end they had killed her. They were trash. All of them. And in her mind they deserved to burn for it.

She started to step off of the edge when she heard footfalls to her left. Rapid, heavy, the sound of someone running as fast as they could towards her. She started to fall as she glanced to the side and caught the smallest glimpse of silver as an arm reached out and snaked around her chest and her entire momentum shifted and she ended up falling side ways and hitting the ground an inch or so from the edge with a heavy male body wrapped around her.

She felt her hair stir a bit as his breath fanned the side of her face, his arms tightened to the point of pain around her and she had to bite her lower lip to keep from making a sound as Kakashi growled in her ear, low and threatening as he quickly rolled them both away form the edge and pinned her smaller body under him and snarled at her, his mis matched eyes alight with fury and rage.

"What the hell did you think you were doing? Do you know how close you just came to dying? Why would you do something like that?" He had never been so utterly terrified before in his life as he had been when he had watched her step off of the mountain top and start to fall. His hands were shaking as he pushed her hair back from her face and framed it in his hands, his expression an odd mixture between relief and pain. She stared at him not really sure what to say.

Honestly it wasn't like she could tell him what was going through her mind, or why she had stepped off the edge. He'd think she was crazy and have her committed first.

"Please, Uzu...talk to me. Tell me what's wrong." He begged and she frowned because she had never known Kakashi to beg for anything before in his life. He was simply too strong willed to beg. But he was begging now and she still couldn't answer him. Not honestly anyways.

"I just don't want to be alone anymore." She said as tears welled up and slipped down her face. He took several deep breaths and leaned over her and touched hsi forehead to hers, his breath fanning her face as he stroked her cheeks with his thumbs.

"Okay. I get it." And he did. He understood all too well how over whelming it could be for a person when they were left alone for so long. He could work with this. He'd do whatever he could to make sure that she was never alone again.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

It hadn't taken as much as he had thought it would. As far as the Hokage was concerned, as long as she was happy with Kakashi's little arrangement then everything was fine.

The Hokage had fixed it so that Kakashi could take high paying missions close to the village so that he wasn't sacrificing much just to keep her. And Kakashi had asked Uzu if she would like to come and stay with him, figuring that this was a much better solution to everything, he could stay close to her and she wouldn't be alone again. In his mind that meant that there would be no more close calls with death.

And that alone made the copy nin deliriously happy.

Kakashi opened his apartment door and flicked on the light switch and stood back to let Uzu in. She paused in the door way and looked back at him, it was the same look that she had given him a week ago. A million questions reflected in her eyes as she reached out and took the duffel bag containing her meager belongings and stepped over the thresh hold. He sighed and followed her in, quietly closing the door and locking it behind him as he slipped off his shoes and looked at Uzu.

She was standing in the middle of the room, eerily similar to the way that she had earlier, seemingly waiting for something. He tugged off his head band and looked at her, his curiosity getting the best of him. "What are you waiting on?"

"I don't know where to put my things."

Ah. Now he understood. "Alright." He said as he took the bag from her and walked down the short hallway to his spare room and opened the door. The room might be a bit smaller than her old room, but it was cozy and she could easily be comfortable here. He set the bag down and looked around the small room and automatically noticed just a few teeny problems.

One) Her old lady bug bed was still in place against the far corner of the wall. Two) There was'nt a dresser, or vanity, or well much of anything.

He'd have to share his bed until he got some new furniture for her. He turned and glanced at her as she looked around the room then back at him. "Is there something else that you need?" He asked curiously. She shook her head and slipped past him into the room and sat down in the middle of the floor and stared at the walls. If Kakashi thought her behavior strange, he said nothing about it.

"I haven't eaten yet. Have you?" He asked in an awkward manner and winced. He was more than a little awkward about having her here. It was a whole hospitality thing. He hadn't had anyone in his place since the day that she had been taken from him by the Hokage. It felt just a little wierd having her here now. But he'd get over the feeling. She looked at him and shook her head no, and he sighed.

"Okay. I'll fix us something. And then we'll take a bath and go to sleep."

She looked at him strangely and cocked her head. He made it sound as if he expected her to take a bath with him. She was going to ask but he turned and started to walk back down the hall to the kitchen, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

Dinner was quiet. Much quieter than he thought it would be.

Uzu it would seem, wasn't the same little tyke that he had once known and cared for. She was quiet, almost with drawn. She didn't look at him. She didn't speak unless spoken too. It was a bit troubling just how difficult he found it was just to draw her into a conversation.

She ate her dinner, and even helped clean the dishes. Such out of character behavior was odd for a child her age. He expected her to whine, and run to her room and lock herself in and laugh and play like any other child her age would. But she didn't.

And that worried him. It worried him more than he thought it would as he dried his hands and looked around the room to find her. She was sitting at the table again, in the same seat that she had been in before, her hands neatly folded in her lap. He walked out of the kitchen and put one of his hands on top of her head and tried to ignore the way that she jumped and twisted around to look at him with those wide beautiful eyes.

"Come on. We're both dirty and need to clean up before we go to sleep." That was his most polite way of saying that he didn't want dirt and leaves in his bed. She frowned at him as she stood up and pushed her chair back into place under the table and followed him down the hall to the bathroom and cocked her head as he pulled off his mask.

This was going to be weird.

She wasn't sure if she could keep her hands to herself if they bathed together, even if she looked like she was ten, inside she had the same heart and mind that she had had when she had died. Kakashi pulled his shirt off over his head and glanced at her when she didn't move. She was just standing still again. "Something wrong?" She thinned her lips and gave him a pointed look.

Where to begin?

Having a ten year old girl bath with a grown man looked just a little suspicious even in her mind. It might appear suspicious to others too if they saw them. Then again it could be just because he was tired and figured that this was less time consuming. Then again it could be because he wanted to check her over and see for himself just how badly she had been hurt over the years. "I think I'm a little too old to bathe with a grown up."

He raised a brow at her and reached out and put his hand against her chest. "Still flat as a board here." She bristled as her face flushed a deep pink color and she gaped at him as he continued. "And I don't think you've started you period yet, right?" She made a funny noise, her embarrassment tripling. She was not answering that question.

"Well?" He said as he waited for her to say something. She had a mortified look on her little face that he found absolutly adorable as he grabbed the hem of her shirt and started to pull it up over her head, she made a squeeking sound and grabbed her shirt and tried to pull it back down and he grinned. This sort of reminded him of all the times she had fought with him before he had tossed her in the shower as a baby.

"S-Stop it! This is weird!"

"No it's not. Look at this from my point of view. Lack of breasts, and your monthly visitor means that you are still a child and therefor can bathe with an adult as long as you trust them. Unless...you have something to hide or you don't trust me. Is that what's going on?" Because if it was then she had no business moving in with him.

"Wha-No! This is just weird-" He made a humming sound as he made one last pull and lifted her shirt up over her head. She made a choking sound and prayed that her hair was long enough to hide the burn marks on her back and the dark red and angry looking markings on her butt. He dropped her shirt to the floor and stared at her with an unreadable expression on his face as she lifted her arms to hide her chest from him.

He found her need for modesty endearing, cute even, but it was misplaced with him. He knew her body so there was no need for her to feel so compelled to hide herself from him, unless she was trying to hide something that she was sure he wouldn't like. Like scars maybe. He unbuttoned her pants and glanced at her face for a second as he slipped them down her legs with her panties and grasped her wrist, marvelling at how tiny and delicately boned she was. His hand all but swallowing her wrist, and half of the space between her hand and elbow.

He turned on the water in the bathtub and put the water plug in the drain and started to bend down to lift Uzu into the tub when he caught sight of her back in the mirror and froze. "What the-" Shock and anger filled his tone, glittered in his eyes as he lifted her up and cradled her against his chest before setting her down on the sink counter and staring at the wounds on her back, the dark angry raw looking scars on her butt that looked like welts that had split her skin open and torn through muscle. She twitched as she felt his hand lightly trace one of the burns on the small of her back before dipping just a little bit lower to trace the top part of one of the deep red markings.

"Who did this?" His tone was very soft. Yet there was a steely undertone to it, steel wrapped in velvet. His eyes staring at the wounds in the mirror, memorising them and silently promising retrubution on the one/ones that had done this to her. She said nothing. Really there was nothing that she could say. The wounds on her butt had been part of the torture that Shika had used on her along with using the same piece of bamboo to beat the soles of her feet so that she wouldn't be able to run away form him when he was attacking her.

"I don't remember..."

She was lying to him. He knew it in his heart, that for whatever reason he couldn't fathom, she was lying to him. Had the person who had done this threatened her? Frightened her? Told her that she deserved to be treated this way? Was this somehow directly linked to how she had found out about Kyubbi? Or was she in some way trying to protect the person who had done this to her? He didn't know, but he knew that he didn't like it.

Not one little bit.

"Uzu..." He said her name warningly and she pushed against his chest, making him step back away from her a bit so that she could look him in the eyes.

"It's no use thinking of going after him Kakashi. The person who did this is dead now. He can't hurt anyone anymore." She said before slipping off of the counter and walking over to the tub and climbing in, not wanting him to dig any deeper because she didn't want him to know about anything else that had happened to her in her previous life. She sank down until just the top part of her head was poking out of the water, her pale blond hair floating around her slender shoulders.

She looked like a little ash blond crocodile lying in wait for something to snatch. She would have looked cute to him if he wasn't upset by the scars that he had seen on her body. He finished stripping and climbed into the tub and sank as far down into the warm water as he could with a small blond headed crocodile in his tub, and braced his feet on either side of her hips and picked up the soap and looked at her.

"Come here Uzu." He'd wash her real quick and let her run from the room in one of his towels like she used too. She narrowed her violet eyes at him and thinned her lips under the water and flattened her back against the far side of the tub and drew her legs up against her chest and glared at him. He sighed and let his head fall back to rest against the top of the tub before looking at her again and growling a bit in frustration.

She had always been difficult when it came to bathing. Why he had thought that she would cooperate this time, he had no idea. "Come here Uzu."

Her glare kicked up a notch or two. She was not going over to him where he could sit her in his lap and wash her. She wasn't a child, despite how she looked and she didn't like being treated as a child. Not only that but she was kind of wary of being in his lap because she wasn't sure how she would react to the feel of his skin against her own. He reached for her and she counted by slapping his hand away and splashing him in the eyes with some water.

He sputtered and growled. "Evil crocodile girl." And lunged at her. She shrieked and sank under the water and squirmed as she felt his hands slide up her ribs to her under arms where he gripped her and lifted her up out of the water and settled her in his lap as she coughed and wiped at her eyes and gasped for air.

She squirmed in his grasp and tried to get loose. As she felt something cold and slimy on top of her head and growled at him in irritation as he locked her in place with his arm as he rubbed the shampoo into her hair. Hard. She grasped his arm and tried to push his hand away from the top of her head and he chuckled evilly. There was no way that he was letting her go now that he had her. He would be stupid to let her go now. Especially when he had yet to finish his task of washing her. "Close your eyes and hold your breath." He said cheerfully, his sadistic side suddenly pushing to the forefront of his personality.

Panic surged through her blood as she struggled with him, knowing that he was about to dunk her under water, by force just frightened the hell out of her. He grasped her little wrists in one hand and yanked her legs out from under her and watched her go under. He rubbed her head under the water to make sure that he had rinsed out all of the soap and pulled her back up. She took a deep gasping breath and sputtered.

"M-Mother...Fucker..." She hissed as she wiped at her face in an effort to get all of the water out of her eyes. She had always hated feeling blind. Kakashi stared at her in wide eyes horror. Had she just said what he thought she said?

Mother fucker. Really? Seriously? Where the hell had she picked up that _kind _of language? He wondered as he brought both of his hands up and sharply smacked both of her cheeks, not hard, just enough to sting. She yelped and jumped as he framed her face in his hands and growled at her, his mis matched eyes glittering with temper. "Where did you hear language like that, young lady?"

She opened her mouth to answer him and he broke off a small piece of the soap and stuffed it in her mouth and smirked evilly as she gagged and slapped a hand over her mouth to keep her from spitting it out. "Not so fast honey. You have to keep it in your mouth for ten seconds-" And he didn't bother to warn her that his concept of time was completely skewered, but from the way that she was struggling he got the impression that she knew.

Still he didn't want to be too cruel. So he slowly counted to ten, three times then let her go. She climbed out of the bath tub and spat the soap out in the sink and started rinsing her mouth out with some cold water as she tried to keep from throwing up. He finished his bath and climbed out and grabbed two towels, one for him and one for her as she finished rinsing her mouth out and shut the water off as she turned her head to glare at him again as he wrapped the towel. A fuzzy soft blue, around her small shoulders.

"You'll catch a cold if you hang around naked."

She glared at him and pulled the towel closer around her shoulders as he shook out the one that he would be using and reached out and ran her sharp little finger nails across his left butt cheek, making sure to apply as much force as she could without temporarily incapacitating him and smirked evilly as he stiffened and his face turned a deep red before he turned to look at her, she blanked her expression and started to walk out of the room as he stared at her back from narrowed eyes.

His hand going to his butt and coming back stained with a little bit of blood. He frowned and turned around a bit to study the marks and growled in irritation as the sting finally hit him, the scratches burned like fucking fire!

"Of course you realise that this means war. Right?" Kakashi called as he leaned out of the bathroom door and saw Uzu look over her shoulder at him with a diabolical look before she walked into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Well. It looked like his little Uzu-baby was still in there somewhere.

He snorted and dried off as best as he could with five _agonising_bloody little marks on his ass cheek and walked to his bedroom with the towel loosely wrapped around his hips and grabbed some sweat pants and put them on as Uzu's bedroom door opened and she walked out wearing a large deep blue long sleeved satin shirt, her hair brush in her small hand, and smiled at him happily as he glared at her clearly not amused by her retaliation for being dunked in the tub. But really he had no one to blame but himself.

She had sort of tried to warn him that bathing with her was a bad idea. It wasn't her fault that he didn't listen to reason. "Your not funny brat." Kakashi hissed as the sweat pants brushed up against his injured butt cheek, making him winch. She gave him a tight lipped smile that held little humor in it and started to brush her damp hair.

"Neither are you." She pointed out as she finished brushing her hair and looked up at him when she felt him move to stand in front of her and had to bite her bottom lip to keep from laughing at the comicaly outraged look on his face, his semi long bangs added to the whole funny effect by sticking strait up in the air away from his face making him look like he had stuck his finger in a light socket. She snickered and pointed up at his hair and he gave her an exasperated look and took her brush from her and started to try and tame the wild gravity defying mess.

He tried for a good twenty minutes before growling in irritation and putting the brush down on his dresser across the room and sighed tiredly and looked at the clock on his wall just above and to the right of his dresser. It was well after midnight, and he was exhausted. He switched off the bathroom light and turned to her. "Lets go to bed baby. I don't think I can stay up playing with you anymore tonight." He said gently as he walked-er limped over to the bed and pulled the covers back and looked at her expectantly.

She turned pink but wasted no time in climbing into bed and laying down on the farthest side away from him and curled up on her side. He climbed into bed and lay down on his side, facing her and dragged her back up against his chest and held her there as she turned her head to look at him in the darkness, probably wondering what he was doing. He grinned down at her in the dark and chuckled.

"This way I don't have to worry about you trying to pull a fast one on me and slipping out of bed or something and getting into mischief."

"I wouldn't."

"Sorry baby, but I don't really believe you."

"That's your problem, Wolf." She snapped irritably and he made a humming sound and rested his chin on the top of her head and tucked her more firmly against his body.

"I'm sending you back to school tomorrow." Kakashi said in a drowsy tone after several minutes of silence.

"I won't go."

"Yes you will. I'll drag you there personally if I have too."

"I don't want to go."

He sighed softly and raised himself up on an elbow and loomed over her a bit. "I know that your probably tired unto death of hearing this but, I don't care what you want. Not about this anyways. I know that things have been hard and painful for you, but you need the interaction. You need to be in school to learn and make friends. I don't want you to grow up isolated and alone like you have been. I don't want you completely defenseless against the people out to get you either."

"You don't have to worry about that Kakashi. The villagers are'nt going to hurt me any more." Because she had had it with them and would kill them on sight if they tried. Kakashi mis understands her words and smiles, then leans down and kisses her forehead before settling back down beside her and holding her close and drifting to sleep.

It's hours before she managed to fall asleep herself. And when she does the nightmares start.


	6. back to school

WARNING! VIVID dream of her past life

contains one of Shika's attacks against her. Dont read if you you don't want to know. okay.

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_Uzu stumbled back and hit the wall of her apartment as blood trickled down her face from her nose. He wide violet eyes staring at Shikamaru in shock. Why had he hit her? She wondered as he stepped into the apartment and closed the door behind him. His expression dark and full of hatred and rage._

_"I hate you." The simple words contained so much information, they cut her deeply and made her feel sick, told her that the reason that he was here tonight was to hurt her._

_"I didn't kill him Shika." She said as tears slipped from the corner of her eyes, he bared his teeth and snarled at her, crossing the short distance between them and grabbed her by the front of her shirt as his palm connected with her cheek, once, twice, a third and fourth time._

_"Maybe not, but your still the reason that he's dead." And for that alone he hated her. Hated the very fact that she lived, hated that she still breathed while his sensei lay cold and dead in the ground and his pregnant widow Kurinai cried._

_He hated the fact that there was so many people willing to throw their lives away for her. Hated that she was'nt even aware of the pain that she was causing. He hated that everyone protected her so much that she could easily live her life even without sorrow or pain after someone with so much more to offer the village was dead. He loathed her. Despised her. Wanted her to disappear._

_"I'm not. The Akutsuki targeted him on their own, Shika. They were after a bounty on his-" she gasped in pain, her words cut off by a fire ball of pain that was slowly spreading from her stomach up-_

_She looked down as blood welled up in the back of her mouth and slipped from between her pale lips to run down her chin as she looked down at the bloody knife blade buried in her gut and glanced up at Shika's face, her heart stuttering in her chest as he twisted the blade savagly and yanked it out. She cried out and collapsed as he stared down at her dispassionately. "No more excuses. I'm sick of you hanging around getting the rest of us killed. Since you refuse to leave on your own...I'll give you a reason to disappear."_

_He dropped to his knees next to her and trailed the bloody knife along her skirt, the black one that she had worn to Asuma's funeral, the blade lifting the fabric up until it was bunched around her waist. She gasped and started to push herself upright but he had her trapped with his shadow possession jutsu. "Shika...W-what are you-" Her voice was shaking as she looked at him, his expression unreadable. He gave her a cold smile and slipped the blade between her skin and her panties._

_Her eyes widened in horror as realisation sank in. He wouldn't._

_"Like I said, I'll be the reason that you disappear. By the time I'm done with you-" He leaned down and whispered in her ear. "This is all you'll be good for. And it will make you want to die." He sat back on his heels and cut her panties from her causing her to gasp and struggle even more as she watched his hands go to his pants and unfasten them._

_"Please no. God please-"_

_"Beg all you want demon. No one is going to save you..." He said as he freed his dick from his pants and violently pushed the hardened length inside of her._

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Uzu bolted upright in the bed screaming. The combined movement and sound jolting Kakashi to full consciousness and did a quick sweep of the room before his eyes landed on Uzu, who was clutching the bed sheets shaking and sobbing and hyperventilating, as tears slipping down her pale cheeks. He did one more visual sweep of the room before sighing and sitting up and reaching out and switching on the lamp on the bedside table.

"Uzu?" He said her name very softly and shifted to touch her and was more than a little suprised when she slapped his hand away from her and screamed at him as she scrambled out of bed to the other side of the room.

"Don't touch me! Just don't!" Her back hit the wall as she cried and she slowly sank down the wall and sat on the floor, drawing her knees to her chest and hid her face and started rocking back and forth as alarm bells started going off in his sleep deprived mind. This wasn't normal. This wasn't a normal night terror or even a normal reaction to a nightmare. This was something else entirely. He could tell by the sheer amount of fear she had had in her tone, her expression, the smell of her fear even bled from her pores.

There was so much of the shit that Kakashi felt himself gagging, his stomach cramped viciously as he slipped out of bed and slowly. Very, very slowly moved towards her. Trying to make himself seem less threatening than he actually was, his need to find out what was wrong and comfort her driving him. "Uzu...baby? Do you know who I am? Are you awake enough to see me?"

She shuddered and trembled as she peeked up at him, her sobs quieting down just a little bit. "Woofie?" He blinked at her use of his old Anbu name, the childish speak throwing him a little bit. She was'nt completely awake or she would have been calling him by his given name.

"Yeah, it's me. Woofie. Do you wanna come over here?"

She took a deep shuttering breath and shook her head no. He inched a bit closer and stopped when she looked up at him, her violet eyes looked impossibly wide in her little face, there were red rimmed from crying and the dark smudges under her eyes look so much darker against her pale skin. "Do you want to tell me whats wrong? You know that I won't get mad or judge you." He said coaxingly as he sat down in front of her, fully prepared to do whatever he had to do to comfort her, even if it meant going another night without any real rest.

She shook her head no again and shivered as she curled up into an even tighter ball, suddenly feeling very cold. Like all the warmth in the world had been sucked out of the atmosphere or something. "Are you cold?" Kakashi asked curiously and she peeked up at him again and nodded. He didn't need to ask anything else, he just reached out to her and wiggled his fingers at her. Indicating that she could come to him and curl up and he would warm her.

She looked like she was about to cry again for a second as she stared at his hands and he wondered if maybe something more had been going on with her than simple beatings and assassination attempts. It took a full fourty five minutes for her to seem to wake up enough for him to reach out and touch her, at which point he picked her up off of the floor and settled her in his lap and hugged her tight.

His mind racing in so many directions that he just knew that he was going to go without sleep tonight too. He doubted that he would be able to doze off again after seeing Uzu like this anyways. At least not without having nightmares of his own. He stayed up with her for two hours, just trying to comfort her, alternating between singing to her and hugging her until at about five in the morning, when she finally passed out cold and didn't wake up again for the rest of the morning.

Kakashi stood in the bedroom door watching the child sleep, she was curled up on her side facing away from the window, her pale hair slipping over her shoulder and in her face partially hiding it. It was close to one in the after noon and though he had said that she was going back to school today, he was loath to wake her up. Even if it meant that she would end up going for a few hours. He was worried about the night terror that she had had last night, worried to let her out of his sight.

His gut and his instinct telling him that there _was_a reason why her behavior seemed to have changed so radically. A few things that could have caused the personality changes came to mind. None of them were good. He had stayed up all night after she had woken him up playing and replaying last nights events in his mind and wracking his brain for answers and had finally decided that he would talk to Inoichi since he was one of the few people in the village not out for the girl's blood and see if he would mind acting as a therapist so that he could find out just what the hell had been going on with Uzu when she was alone.

After a few minutes of silently debating with himself he moved across the room to the bed and reached out and lightly shook her. Uzu came awake with a jerk and looked at him curiously. "Kakashi?" Her voice was raspy, slighly softer and more husky sounding. She had a sultry voice. He blinked as he realised this and made a mental note to keep _all_ pesky boys away from her so that they never heard her sultry morning voice.

He smiled at her and brushed her hair back from her face. "What time is it?" Uzu asked as she stretched and stifled a yawn behind her hand.

"It's just a little bit after one." He said and she frowned and sat up in bed and looked at the digital clock next to the bed then glanced at him.

"I thought that I was going to school today."

"You are. As long as you don't mind me tagging along." Kakashi said gently. He was still worried about letting her out of his sight for long. She shrugged. It didn't bother her any if he wanted to come to school with her. If anything it might distract the other kids from singling her out. And if all else failed, she'd throw him to the rabid little monsters and run like hell. He was a big guy, he could handle whatever they did to him.

"You have ten minute then. Think that you can be dressed and ready to go in that time?"

"Give me five." She would only really need two to get dressed and use the facilities. She could pull her hair back into a braid or something while they walked to the school.

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Twenty minutes later Kakashi opened the door to Iruka's class room and paused as Iruka wrote on the black board as all of the children looked at him. Some with curiosity. Some with excitement as the whispering started. Kakashi opened the door just a little bit more and maneuvered Uzu inside of the room as Iruka turned around and started to yell at the kids.

"Pay attention you-Ahh! Hatake-san!" _My but he sounds surprised. _Kakashi mused as he smiled at the younger man from behind his mask.

"Yo, Umino-san. Mind if I borrow you for a second?" Iruka looked as if he was about to ask why when he caught sight of Uzu half hidden behind Kakashi's leg. Iruka tuned his dark eyes on the copy nin and wondered what he was doing with the girl.

"Sure. Let's just step outside. Uzu, why don't you take a seat in the back and start reading your English assignment. It's in your English book, page number..."

"Seventy nine?" Uzu asked as she recalled this particular assignment from the first time she had done it. It would seem that today was the day that some of the girls in class let their jealousy ove whelm them and cause them to attack her with some siccors. They hadn't hurt her the first time, but she had been rather upset that her long hair and her clothes had been cut up.

Iruka was about to say yes wen he realised that there was no way that she could have known the page number that the assignment began on since she hadn't been to school in over a week. "Uh...yeah. Page seventy nine."

Uzu nodded her head and walked up the steps that divided the class room and made her way to the top step where the empty desk was and quickly and quietly sat down. Trying to ignore the glares and whispering that started up as she passed the girls who were planning to attack her. Jealousy was a bitch to deal with, but there wasn't much that she could about it right now. These people weren't really the same ones that had killed her.

They were children so using excessive violence against them was out of the question. All that would do is serve to alienate her even more. She watched Iruka slip out the class room door with Kakashi and steeled herself to face the kids about to jump her. As soon as the door closed, several girls, some of the ugly ones that liked to pick on Sakura and Hinata stood up and moved towards her desk.

Uzu silently watched them out from under her bangs, mentally countng their numbers as she felt her heart pick up it's calm and easy pace as the girls all circled her. There were at least seven of them now, all of them looking annoyed and furious and she wanted to yell, "What have I ever done to you?"

But knew that doing so was pointless. Especially since she already knew the answers that they would refuse to give her. "Well, well look who finally decided to show up." One girl said in an amused one.

"And with a shinobi escort no less." Another laughed, as if the thought of having someone walk with her was just so funny. She kept her eyes down and tried to focus on reading the book in front of her as she pulled it out of her desk and flipped it open.

"Was the wittle baby scared to come back alone?" Yet another girl mocked her. Uzu bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying, _Wittle baby is about to rip out your lungs and watch you writhe on the floor. _She didn't find this the least bit funny or fun.

"Could you leave me alone? I need to read like Iruka-sensei said." Uzu said, forcing herself to be polite and sound a little afraid. One of the girls brought her scissors down on the open book, pierceing the thick mass of papers and tearing Uzu's book up. Uzu sighed and finally looked up at the girls and smirked.

If they were going to attack her then the least she could do was give them a reason. "God your ugly." Every kid in the class room looked up fom their book and turned to look at the group surrounding her. Many anticipating the inevitable explosion of tempers while others were just plain shocked that Uzu would talk back to a group of people that was armed.

It was like she was insane or something. The girl that she had spoken to let out an ungodly scream and slashed at Uzu with her scissors, the thin blade slicing one of the blonde's cheeks just a few inchs below her eye as she threw herself back and tumbled to the floor and rolled as the other girls decided to help 'fucking fool #1' as Uzu had dubbed the girl in her mind and jumped to her feet just in time to be tackled by three other girls.

The students in the class room all jumped to their feet yelling and screaming. Some cheering and others in horror as Uzu punched one girl in the face and grabbed another by her hair and slapped her as she clawed, punched, kicked and fought her way back to her feet. The feel of so many hands touching her, rattled her nerves dangerously. Pulling at her hair, at her clothes, at her skin.

She made a low feral sound as she faced her attackers, the world around her dropped away, everything seemed to disappear, she couldn't see anything but the girls getting ready for round two. One girl-a brunette that she recognised as one of Sauske's fan girls, stood directly across form her holding the scissors as if she was going to stab Uzu with them. "God I fucking hate you." The girl snarled a she glared at Uzu.

Uzu gave her a creepy smile as blood ran down her cheek from the cut on her face. "The feeling is entirely mutual you bitch." Uzu hissed as she forced herself to relax and prepared herself for the next attack as the girl let out a loud enraged scream and lunged towards her as the classroom door opened and Iruka yelled,

"What the hell are you kids-"

Uzu was vaguely aware of someone yelling her name as the girl's bigger body slammed into her own and the two of them went down in a tangle of arms and legs as Uzu just barely managed to grab the brunettes arm and twist the lethal metal scissor blades from her hand as they both took a nasty fall down the steps.

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Kakashi was livid as he paced outside of the school infirmary, impatiently waiting to hear if Uzu was okay or if she was going to need to go to the hospital. He couldn't believe this shit. To think that even the next generation of village shinobi, the people who should have gotten along with Uzu and played with her and befriend her, would attack her with the intent to kill.

It was un-fucking-believable!

It was no wonder Uzu didn't want to be here in the school. She had very nearly died today!

The infirmary door opened and the school nurse stepped out and cleared her throat. "Hatake-san." Kakashi stopped pacing and looked at the woman, his expression as dark as a thunder cloud. Uzu had better be okay or that little brat that had attacked her was going to be his _bitch _until the day she died! And there wouldn't be anything that her damn parents would be able to do about it either.

"Is she okay?" He asked, trying to stay calm, but inside he was seething.

"She's alright aside from some shallow cuts, bruises and a small bump on her head."

Kakashi gaped at the woman behind his mask and nearly choked on his own tongue. Was this woman crazy or something? He had seen Uzu tumble down the stairs. He had seen her crack her had on the concrete floor just a few feet from him and lose consciousness. She could have a concussion or an aneurysm for fuck sake. Didn't anyone in this damn village care about her well being?

He growled in irritation as the woman let him slip into the room and see for himself that Uzu was okay. She was sitting up on the narrow bed with a band aid on her right cheek, there wer several more on her arm, some bandages around her hand, where someone had gotten in a lucky shot and early split her hand open all the way to the bone. There were bruises on her arms and legs, her clothes were ripped and torn and bloody in some places, and her hair...

One of the little bitches that had helped attack her had cut some of the silky strands short. It looked like the nurse had evened it out so that the pale blond strands fell just a little ways past her slender shoulders. "Hey Kashi."

He smiled a little bit and reached out to take her wounded hand and study it. "I guess you still don't want to go to school. Huh?" He asked stupidly, what child in their right mind would want to stay in this sort of envionment? It was dangerous.

"That's not true Kakashi. I really don't mind coming to school. I'll just have to watch myself better, that's all." He swallowed past the lump that had formed in his throat.

"What if I told you that I don't want you here? What if I said that I would teach you?"

"I would have to say thank you, but no. I want to be here." Kakashi nodded and wrapped his arms around her and hugged her, needing to feell the warmth of her body and the soft beating of her heart against his chest to assure himself that she was alive.


	7. talking with Inoichi pt 1

Wow, thank you for the reviews.

And Sousie vengeful much.

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The weeks past by quickly since the school incident had occurred and Uzu had settled into living with Kakashi rather well, all things considered. He had been keeping track of every incident that occurred, every night terror. Everything. He had not only kept track of them but had carefully written everything down in detail and handed it to Inoichi the day that he had talked to him about acting as Uzu's therapist.

Inoichi had read the small journal of nightmares and incidents and told him that he wanted to see Uzu in his office in the Hokage's tower with in a week. He had also told Kakashi very plainly that if the girl missed her appointment he would see to it that the Hokage was clued in on her night terrors and what they could mean, and the copy nin would never see her again. Not for a really, _really_ long time.

That had been five days ago and Kakashi still hadn't told Uzu that he was taking her to see the man. Instead he had lied to her and promised her ice cream, which he fully intended to deliver on as soon as she came out of Inoichi's office. See. He wasn't such a terrible person. Right? _Right?_

Still he had lied to her and that didn't sit well with him. Not even a little bit.

Uzu looked up at him and wondered why he was suddenly gripping her hand so hard that it was starting to hurt as they walked towards the tower in the far back of the village under the mountain where Uzu still liked to go (but not without Kakashi's super vision, of course) and sit. "Is something wrong?" Uzu asked curiously as she stared up at him and hissed and had to avert her eyes back to the ground when the sun got in her eyes and temporarily blinded her.

Kakashi looked down at her anxiously. "No. Nothing is wrong. I just need to see the Hokage about something." His fingers tightened around her hand even more, finally managing to cut off the circulation in her fingers. She made a low warning sound, she was about ready to scratch him again and if she did it this time she was _not_ holding back. And he would cry. She would make damn sure of it before she stole his wallet and ran off to get ice cream on her own.

He must have heard the funny little sound she had made because he turned his head to look down at her. "Is anything wrong with you?" He was asking because he was hoping that she would tell him why she had changed so much. Why she always seemed to wake up screaming and crying and refused to let him touch her until she was a bit calmer.

"Your not getting anything but my name, rank and serial number...Your crushing my hand by the way. Could you loosen your grip?" His lips curved up in a small smile as he forced his fingers to loosen around her hand, not even realising that he had been subconsciously squeezing her hand until she had said something.

"Your awful cheeky today. Did something good happen?"

"Not really. I'm just a little amused by my own thoughts."

"Oh? What's so amusing about your thoughts?"

She looked up at him again and was just a bit thankful that the sun had slipped behind some clouds. "You don't really want to know." She replied sagely and he shook his head in bemusement. Silly girl. Why did she feel such a strong need to hide things from him? He led her up the steps to the side door and opened it for her and waited for her to slip inside of the building before following her in.

Inoichi was waiting for them outside of his office, his pale blue eyes skimming the pages of the make shift journal that Kakashi had given him and glanced up when the copy nin suddenly appeared in the hall way holding the hand of a small girl with wide violet eyes and soft pale blond hair. So this was the Kyubbi container. She was a cute kid, and would one day be a really stunningly beautiful woman.

Uzu looked up at Kakashi as they got closer to Inoichi, her mind kicking into over drive, and her fight or flight instincts flared to life. She didn't know what the hell was going on, but she wasn't going to spend any time alone with someone who could easily invade her mind. Inoichi snapped the small note book closed and smiled at her and her stomach sank with dread. Inoichi dropped down so that they were eye to eye, his smile warm and friendly.

She had to restist the urge to slap him.

Kakashi shifted his hold on her and placed his hands on her small shoulders. "Uzu...this is Inoichi. He's going to sit in his office and talk to you a little bit about your night terrors and some of the things that have happened at school."

Inoichi reached out to take her hand and Uzu took an involuntary step back, pressing her back against Kakashi's legs as far as it would go as she glared at the blond man, a dark expression on her face. Inoichi blinked at her and dropped his hand back to his side. Okay, so she didn't like him much if that look was any, _any_ indication at all.

_If looks could kill. _He thought as he got up off of the floor and opened his office door and waited for her to step inside. She didn't move. It would be a cold day in hell before she walked into that room on her own. "Uzu, honey I know that you don't like this-" Kakashi started to say as he spun her around to look at him and dropped to one knee in front of her. She made another little warning sound and glared at him.

"I'm not talking to you, traitor." Kakashi flinched as if she had struck him. The word 'Traitor' cutting him deeply. He stared at her for several seconds and gave her a small smile from behind his mask as he picked her up and carried her over to the door and winched when she reached out and dug her sharp little finger nails into the skin of his wrists as he carried her into the room and gave Inoichi a pleading look.

The blond man nodded his head, yes the pitiful looking copy nin could stay and listen so that if Uzu got scared he would be right there. Kakashi set Uzu down in the chair in front of Inoichi's desk and quickly retreated to the other side of the room and sat down.

Ah if the Anbu guys could see the Hatake now...

They would never stop laughing. Inoichi mused as he sat down across from Uzu and set the book little note book down and noticed how the girl's eyes went from him to the book. She was planning to steal it and destroy it the second his back was turned. He could tell by the calculating light in her eyes that she obviously had secrets and she didn't _feel_ like sharing them.

"Tell me something about yourself Uzu. What's your favorite color?"

Uzu looked at him and thinned her lips as she turned her head to look at Kakashi and hissed. "Red. Deep red. Like blood." Kakashi bit back a whimper and sank down in his seat and tried not to squirm. Inoichi snorted in amusement and grinned as he wrote down something then looked at the girl again.


	8. talking with Inoichi pt 2

She wasn't sure what had led them to this. One second she had been playing cemetary and saying nothing and the next Inoichi asked if he could try to hypnitise her.

Inoichi held a coin on a string in front of her eyes and let it twist first one way, then the other. Uzu didn't look amused as the man smiled at her and said. "I want you to look at this. Watch it spin in and out. In and out. I want you to relax..." He glanced at the girl. She still looked stiff and tense. He spoke a little more and noticed that she had stopped blinking, the tension had left her body and was watching the coin, spinning, spinning, spinning-

Inoichi lowered his hand and set the coin on his desk and looked at Kakashi. He knew that the man had given his permission for this if Inoichi had thought it necessary, but that didn't mean that Inoichi himself wasn't somewhat worried about what they might find locked in the little girl's head. Kakashi leaned forward in his seat and gave him and anxious look. "Are you sure that you want me to continue this, Kakashi?" He would ask this one last time.

Kakashi nodded his head. He wanted to know more about Uzu. He wanted to know what her life had been like when he hadn't been hanging around. He wanted to know what made her scream and cry and shake when she woke up at night. He wouldn't be able to help her until he knew everything. He truly believed this.

He truly felt that he would be able to handle this. "Go ahead."

Inoichi nodded his head and leaned forward in his seat. "Uzu. I want you to imagine your self in your living room three years ago. I want you to tell us what is going on. Are you at home alone? Or are you with a friend?"

An image of Shikamaru's face swam in her mind's eye. Dark and angry.

She shrank back in her seat and made a distressed sound. "A-A friend. I'm with a friend."

"And what is your friend doing? Can you walk us through his or her visit?"

"He's mad. Really mad. His sensei was buried today, and he blames me."

"Your starting to look scared Uzu. Tell us what he's doing."

"He punched me-" Her hand went up to her face, her fingers lightly touching the place where she had felt Shika's fist connect with her face. She looked at her fingers and frowned as if she was seeing blood on her finger tips. "I can't believe he hit me. He's never hit me before..."

"Never?"

"No."

"Is he speaking to you?"

"Yes."

"What is he saying? Will you tell us?"

_"I hate you."_

"I tell him that I didn't kill him. I didn't kill his sensei. And he slaps me. Over and over and over." She lifted her hand to her cheek, it was shaking as she blinked back tears. Kakashi looked at Inoichi again, his anxiety spiking.

"What happens next?"

"He says 'Maybe not, but you are the reason that he is dead' He looks so mad, I'm starting to get scared-"

"You weren't before?"

She frowned again. "No. I'm used to people knocking me around. I just let them do it and get it out of their system and wait for them to leave."

"I see. Alright tell us what happens after that."

"I try to tell him that it wasn't my fault. That the Akutsuki attacked and killed him-"

"The Akutsuki? Who are they? What do they do?"

"They are a secret organisation that collect people like me."

"Like you?"

"Demon containers."

Inoichi looked at Kakashi as he picked up his note book and quickly jotted down what Uzu had just told them and made a mental note to speak with the Hokage after this. "Alright. We'll come back to this Akutsuki thing later. Tell us more about your friend's visit. What happened after you tried to tell him that it wasn't your fault that his sensei died?"

"He stabbed me in the stomach. I never even saw him move. I fell down after he twisted the knife and pulled it out and he pinned me down and ran the blade along the inside of my leg, he lifted my skirt-"

Inoichi leans forward intending to spare her the worst of the horror and frames her little face in his hands. "Uzu...did your friend rape you?"

She blinked rapidly as tears welled up and a strangled sob escaped her throat. She nodded her head and Inoichi's eyes go to the copy nin across the room as the man squeezed his blue eye closed and hangs his head and takes a shuddering breath. Oh god no.

No. No. No. Not his little Uzu. Not her. She was too sweet, too gentle, too_ innocent_.

He felt such sorrow and pain. Such an over whelming need to shed blood and scream and cry. This was too much.

How could anyone do this to a child?

Inoichi gave the copy nin a sad look and brushed Uzu's hair back from her little face. They weren't done yet. He had just one more question about her 'friend'. How long did he visit her before the attacks stopped?

Uzu's answer was heart breaking. Years.

Kakashi left the room, slipping out the door silently, unable to bear hearing any more while he was upset. He would need to calm down and think of how he could help her, he was no good to the girl if he went off half cocked and started killing people.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Why? Why hadn't anyone done something? Why hadn't anyone seen what was happening and done something about it? As much as he wanted to ask these questions, and scream and yell and rant. It was pointless because Kakashi already knew the answers to each of those questions.

No one had cared. Even if someone had known what was going on, and seen Uzu being hurt it just didn't matter to anyone because she was seen as nothing more than a monster. Her wants, her needs, her feelings had never mattered to anyone. Not one little bit.

_I hate this village. I hate this village. **I hate this village. **_Kakashi thought darkly as he paced back and forth outside of Inoichi's office door. He wasn't sure how long he was out there, just pacing back and forth, his concept of time was still as skewered as it had ever been but he was very aware that Uzu was on the other side of the door. Crying, shaking, frightened and ashamed.

She needn't have felt that way. Because none of it was her fault. It was theirs.

All of it.

They were the only ones to blame for _everything_.

They were the _weak_ ones, the _failures_, the supposedly strong and _elite_. Hiding behind the figure of a small child.

They were all _pathetic_.

Every last one.

The office door swung open and Inoichi stepped through with Uzu cradled in his arms, her small face pale and tear streaked, and she was trembling a bit. Kakashi stepped up and took her from Inoichi and looked at the man questioningly. "I knocked her out with some sleeping pills. This little session was physically and mentally exhausting for her. She needs to sleep. And hopefully she won't remember much about today when she wakes up."

Kakashi nodded his head and looked down at Uzu's face as she shuddered in her sleep and buried her face against his vest and sighed. "I'm going to go tell the Hokage about these Akutsuki people and everything else Uzu told me about them-"

"The attack?"

"No. No. I'm not telling the Hokage about that. It would be cruel. I just need you to watch her more closely and bring her back if she needs to talk again." The blond was quiet for a second as he looked down at the little girl. His heart aching in his chest. She was barely the same age as his own daughter, and already she had seen and felt so much fear and pain. He truly hated that Uzu was treated so carelessly.

"You should take her home and put her to bed."

"I will. But first I want to hear more about these Akutsuki guys." Kakashi said as he tightened his arms around the child's body.

Kyubbi had regain her sense of self awareness only long enough to know that she was disappearing. Her kit's body was absorbing her body and her power more and more each hour. Soon she would'nt even be around to lend her kit her strength. But that hadn't stopped her from temporarily taking control of Uzu's body and giving them_ some_ information on what they were up against. The wolf was a reasonably protective male, and already thought of her kit as his.

He would protect her once he realised the truth.

She was sure of it.

She smiled in the darkness as she felt herself fade a little more and wished that she could embrace her kit just one last time. But she was too weak. And in another hour or so she would be dead, and her kit would become the very thing that the pitiful and traitorous humans feared.

A true demon in body, heart and soul.

**_'Goodbye my precious kit... I love you-'_**


	9. a new mission

Later that day-

Today had been the day from hell. The copy nin mused as he took another drink of sake as he watched the small figure laying on the bed for _any_signs of distress. so far the sleeping pills were doing their job, Uzu was sleeping soundly. No tossing. No turning. No whimpering, screaming or crying. Just a calm, quiet and peaceful sleep. The first in a long time, he would bet. He took another drink of sake and knew that he would have to stop.

Getting stinking ass drunk wasn't going to help Uzu. Or change what had happened to her. He put the sake bottle down, making sure that he tipped it over so that the contents spilled onto the floor. It would be difficult to drink more if it was soaked up by the wooden floor under him. He mused as he gave a crooked smile. Uzu turned over in her sleep and his eyes flickered back to her small figure, nicely tucked under the blanket, safe, sound, whole.

No not whole. He wished that she was whole. He wished that she was whole, that her innocence was intact. Rage settled in his gut causing his stomach to churn as a peculiar burning sensation started under his skin. His fingers flexed and curled into a fist. **_God! _**He wished he could get his hands on the sick son of a bitch that had hurt his little Uzu. He pushed himself up off of the floor and placed his hand against the wall when everything started to spin just a little bit.

He thinned his lips as his stomach lurched a bit and acid burned the back of his throat. His head started pounding, his temples throbbing. Just how much sake had he drank anyways? It normally took more than one or-

He looked down at the floor and blinked, more than a little suprised and bemused by the sheer number of sake bottles littering the floor. Wow. Had he really drank that much? He silently counted the bottles.

There were nine in all, he snickered softly and took a step away from the wall and weaved where he stood as the world spun just a little more._ I need to sit down before I fall down. _He thought as he staggered and weaved his way over to the bed and collapsed on the floor next to the bed and glanced at the girl sleeping there.

"I don't suppose you'd want to be held right now." He spoke more to himself than he did to her. Hell he knew the toll that rape took on the body, the heart and the mind of those who suffered it. As a shinobi, he had seen such things used as forms of torture to break enemy nins.

Male. Female. Young and old.

People rarely discriminated between these things when using _it_ as a tool against the enemy.

And as a female nin in training, Uzu would be taught certain things before graduation. She would be taught to hold her tears back and harden her heart. To use her body to entice and seduce. Often times rape was an occupational hazard for young konoichi.

What better way to make someone useless to their people and destroy their will to live than to do such a thing to them.

He twisted his body around and ran his finger tips along her cheek. She made a soft sound and moved just a little closer to where he was. Subconsciously seeking him out even in her sleep. He smiled a bit and tangled his fingers in her soft hair and leaned over her and kissed her cheek. Silently vowing to himself that no men would ever touch her again for any reason unless they were 1) Too scared to try anything with her. Or 2) She decided to marry him someday.

He blinked and shook his head as that _crazy, and insane_ thought crossed his mind. By the time she was sixteen or seventeen he would be twenty four or twenty five. Not too old, but not exactly young enough to be considered a good match for her either. Not only that but Minato would roll over in his grave, dig his way out of the ground and show up at his place for the sole purpose of kicking his ass every which way.

Then again maybe Minato would be happy to know that his baby girl was in the hands of someone who cared about her enough to put her needs, wants and desires above his own. He supposed that stranger things did happen. He poked her in the cheek with his index finger and slid his finger along her cheek to her soft pink lips. "Would you mind so much if I raised you to be my wife someday?"

Uzu didn't answer him, but then he hadn't really expected her too. He just couldn't shake the strange feeling of rightness than he got when he thought of her as his future wife. He knew that he was being stupid, but he couldn't really help it.

Alcohol did funny things to his mind.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Uzu woke up earlier than she had thought she would wrapped in the quilted blanket from the bed and held in Kakashi's arms as the man was reading over something on a piece of paper in one of his hands. A cup of coffee sat on the floor next to his knee, still steaming hot as Kakashi looked away from the paper to her and smiled a little when he noticed that her eyes were open.

"Hey."

"Hey." She mimiced back as she blinked, rubbed her face against his vest and frowned. Why did he smell like booze?

He put the paper aside, writing down on the floor and shifted a little bit and ran his fingers through her hair, combing out the little tangles. "Did you sleep okay?" He asked curiously when what he really wanted to ask was 'What do you remember about yesterday', he recalled getting drunk, thinking strange things, going out for a walk to clear his head (he had summoned his ninja pups to watch her while he was gone) winding up at Gai's and passing out face down in the guy's lap after a ten minute of debating on wheather or not there was life in the universe.

He had only woken up an hour or so ago, completely mortified by the turn of events the night before and had Gai pat him on the shoulder affectionatly and say, "We will never speak of this again." Leaving Kakashi wondering just what the hell he had been drunk enough to do, and why Gai had looked so damn pleased with himself.

He was pretty sure that the green clad nightmare was messing with him. But he was'nt totally sure. Anyways, he'd deal with Gai later even if he had to beat the truth out of him.

"Yeah-" Uzu frowned and tried to remember what had happened yesterday, but could'nt seem to recall anything. "Did I hit my head or something during bath time?" She asked with a worried expression on her pretty face. Kakashi felt his heart clench in his chest but forced himself to smile and play stupid for her sake.

"No. No head wounds, you just nodded off while waiting for me to finish my buisness with the Hokage and didn't wake up."

Uzu tilted her head back. That explination sounded rather convienent. Or suspicious, depending on which way you looked at it. She made a humming sound and squirmed in his grasp, his lifted his arms up and let her move off of his lap and sit down in front of him and look over at the paper that he had been reading. "It's a mission." Kakashi said gently as he reached out and picked up the paper again.

It was a short discription of his mission details.

It would seem that the Hokage's talk with Inoichi had spurred the elder to contact Lord Jiraiya and ask him to gather as much information on the group known Akutsuki as possible and had sent a paper over first thing this morning to tell Kakashi that he was being reinstated into Anbu and was being given a new team. His mission would be to watch over and protect Uzu from any and all suspicous or hostile people by any means he deemed nessisary to keep Uzu alive and unharmed.

It appeared that the elder had finally had it with dicking around with the villagers and everyone else and no longer decided to simply let them off the hook with a stern warning or threat.

"Is it a bad one?"

Kakashi looked at her, his mis matched eyes studying her face. He was'nt so sure that he could have her so close to him while he was acting as an Anbu, especially since he was going to activate his blood line limit. The one that made him different.

There was no telling what she might see him do. No telling how many he might end up killing. Or in what fashion that he might kill them in.

Even when he was off duty, he would still be different. Maybe not towards Uzu herself, but his attitude would change towards his comrades, the villagers, his hatred and contempt might get the best of him in some cases.

He would view them all as his enemy's.

He took his time turning over her question in his mind, over and over again. He _would_ protect her this time. He would _not_ fail her again. _Failure _to do so, was unacceptable. "I dunno just yet..." Kakashi said as he used his chakra to burn the paper up in his hand and crushed what was left of the smoldering page in his fist and looked at Uzu. He would have to tell her that everything was going to get strange.

He would have to warn her that he was going to be different when she got home from school later. He would have to tell her that his state of mind would be different and that she would have to be careful around him sometimes or he might end up hurting her accidentally. "Uzu I need to talk to you about something seriously, and I need you to be perfectly honest with me."

"Is it about your new mission?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Tell me what you need me to do."

Kakashi blinked and felt an unfamiliar burst of pride. God this girl was amazing. Just absolutely amazing. He moved his coffee cup aside and held his arms out to her and wiggled his fingers, wanting to hold her again so that he could draw on her strength. She crawled into his lap and he hugged her tightly. He was'nt too sure that she would let him hold her again when she came home from school. "I'm being reinstated as an Anbu..." He hesitated as he tried to figure out everything that she would need to know and be wary of once his blood line limit was activated.

"And I'll need to activate a very, very scary blood line trait-" _A very, very, very, very scary trait. _Kakashi added silently as she looked up at him. "And what's going to happen when I activate this trait...is that my personality is going to change very drastically. I'll still be me, so don't worry about that. But certain parts of my mind will change and I need you to be aware that if I scare you for whatever reason, I may not be able to help it."

Because certain animal instincts were very difficult to suppress. "I'll still be here when you get home. I'll still walk you to school and take care of you. But-"

Uzu studied him as she wrinkled her nose. In other words he was going to reawaken his _other_ self. The one that flipped out at the smell of menstral blood and sometimes went into heat. The one that liked to pounce on her at the front door and purr in her ear. The one that she had to _struggle_ tro bathe. The one that she had seen rip a person's throat out with his fangs and smile while he did it.

She shivered and buried her face against his vest. So basically the next few months or years were going to be like their entire courtship all over again. Sure she could do this. It would keep her busy and remind her of the good old days while she made nice with some of the people in the village.

"But your going to be very out of character." It was'nt a question. Kakashi looked down at her curious. She sounded like she already knew what he was going to say and nodded his head. He was going to be out of character. Really, really, really out of charater.

"That's fine Kakashi. I'm not worried or scared." She said as she sat back a little bit and smiled at him. He shook his head and tweaked her nose palyfully before saying gently.

"I just need to know if you think you can handle this particular change. That it won't scare you too much, or traumatis you or whatever."

"_I'll_ be fine. You just worry about your mission." Uzu said as she slipped out of the blanket and made her way into the bathroom to use the facilities and get ready for school. Kakashi sat there for what seemed like the longest time, waiting on her to come back out and wondered if maybe he should refuse this mission. Even if it meant losing her forever...

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Uzu waved bye to Kakashi and ran into the school's main building and quietly waited for him to leave. She was ditching school today because it marked the turning point of the begining. Today was supossed to be the day that she was dared to go into the back woods surrounding the village and find the oddly shaped kunai with the village watch shift change schedual, and had both Iruka and Kakashi come to save her.

She watched Kakashi walk away and slipped out of the door as soon as he was gone. She had four hours.

Four hours to get back into the woods, find the kuni in the bird's nest, steal it and set some traps for the konoichi that were going to try and kill her to get the paper. She was'nt exactly going to win anyone over, in fact she didn't even care about winning anyone over. She was going because she wanted to give some of her peers a glimpse of the real her and this was a small but sure way to test herself and start to make a reputaion for herself as a nin.

She did a quick sweep of the area and started walking away from the school knowing that even if someone saw her they would'nt stop her. Because they were _all_ fucking pricks. She was vaiguely aware of a group of kids watching her, two of whom were Shika and Choji. Both of whom were watching her with something akin to worry in their expressions before they went into the building.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kakashi stood in the middle of the rune circle carved into the stone floor under his bare feet looking anxious as the Hokage moved into position.

"Are you sure that I can't refuse this mission?" Kakashi asked for the tenth time in so many minutes, the Kage snorted in amusment and shook his head. He got it already. Kakashi was nervous. And worried about what would happen once the seal on his shoulder blade was released.

"Do you want to keep Uzu with you?"

Kakashi visably flinched. Of course he wanted to keep her with him. He'd keep her forever if he could. Sarutobi smirked at the nervous young man as he shifted back and forth on his feet anxiously waiting to get this whole ordeal over with so that he could hurry home and wait for Uzu to get back from school. He had a wierd nagging feeling in the back of his mind that something was wrong with her and he wanted to go home (or swing by the school) and wait and see for himself if she was okay or not.

"Alright lets get this over with." The silver haired male growled in irritation as that wierd nagging feeling got stronger.

Sarutobi smiled at him and motioned for the other people to take up their positions around the circle and start to make the hand signs and release the increadable amount of chakra that would break the seal on his body.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

I'm going to need help figureing how kakashi is going to act after the seal is broken.

I want him to be just a little colder towards everyone but Uzu.

I actually want to have him pounce her everytime he's happy to see her.

If anyone can help me figure out how he's supposed to be and help me keep him in character i will love you forever.


	10. in the woods alone with you

It happened in the blink of an eye, Kakashi had closed his eyes as he felt the seal giving way, the hair on the nape of his neck bristled and legnthened, he felt his gums tear a bit as his fangs pushed through them, the sweet slightly matalic taste of blood hitting his tongue. A low feral sounding growl vibrating in his chest as he opened his eyes and stared at the elderly white haired man in front of him. The man was smirking as he held up a small hand held mirror for the copy nin to look in.

Kakashi's mis matched eyes flickered to the shiny glass and studied his reflection curiously. He didn't look terribibly different. His hair was a bit longer, and he had a wilder look to his face, he could'nt see his fangs because of his mask, but he was having fun running his tounge along them. Testing the sharpness as he lifted his hands and examined the small but leathally sharp claws that he had sprouted.

"How do you feel?" Sarutobi asked as he closed the hand held compact and stuffed it back in his pocket as the copy nin looked around the room. No doubt testing out his heightened senses.

"I feel..." _Really, really worried._ Kakashi thought as he stepped out of the circle and bent down to pick up his shoes and said. "Where is Uzu? I need to check on her."

"She's at school." Sarutobi said as he wacthed the younger man pull his shoes on and curl his toes a few times and frown down at his feet as if there was something wrong with them.

Even though Kakashi knew that logically Uzu should be at school, his gut was telling him that she had skipped school and gone off somewhere on her own. He finished checking himself over, made sure that he had his shoes, his shirt, his pants, his weapons and everything else in place and made his way to the door figureing that if she had gone off on her own then he should be able to track her down easily.

"Ah, Kakashi! You still have to meet with your new Anbu team!" Sarutobi called after him. The copy nin waved his hand and slipped out the door. Not even bothering to tell the elder that he would be back once he was sure that Uzu was okay.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Iruka did a quick head count and sighed tiredly as he noted that Uzu was missing.

_Goddamn it._ Where was she now? He wondered as he looked at one little face to another, silently looking for any signs of guilt or remorse among the sea of thirty seven faces. So far he was seeing a whole lot of nothing. Which just served to upset him further.

_She had better be okay. She had better be okay. She had better be-_ "Has anyone seen Uzu this morning?" Iruka asked curiously. All eyes lifted from their text books to look at him. All expressions looking bored and blank. Uh-huh.

_I love my job. I love my job. I love my job._ **_I love my job. _**Iruka thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose and called on Kiba. Asking the boy if he had seen her. Kiba just yawned and muttered something about Uzu being a loser and he would'nt waste his time with her when Shikamaru raised his hand.

"Yes, Shika."

"Choji and I saw her heading off towards the back woods earlier." Iruka's eyes widened in disbeleif and horror as the boys words sank into his numb mind. He had heard just this morning when he had been in the teachers lounge grating papers that there had been a group of enemy nins that had snuck into the village and got into a fight with a group that had been passing through the woods. One of the enemy had died but that only mean that her friends were still on the loose and he shuddered to think of what they would do to Uzu if they found her wandering around the woods alone.

He gritted his teeth and picked up his lession book and barked out a quick order to his other students. "Study hall. Now!" And walked out of the room and nearly jumped out of his skin when he ran into Kakashi on his way into the room.

"Kakashi!" _Ekk. I take it back. I hate my job.** I. Hate. My. Job! **_

"Sorry. I just swung by to see if Uzu was doing okay." The copy nin said in a lazy tone as he peeked over the top of the shorter man's head and felt a stab of annoyance when he saw that Uzu's seat was empty. _Please let her be in the rest room or something._

"Oh..well... I'm sorry Hatake-san b-b-but U-Uzu isn't here." Iruka stuttered and nearly wet his pants when Kakashi gave him a cold look and bit out the words.

"Where. Is. She?" Kakashi almost growled as he grasped the front of Iruka's shirt and lifted him up off of his feet and glared at him. The poor man quickly explained what he knew and Kakashi growled and let him go and took off running back the way he came.

He was soooo grounding her cute little ass once he found her and got her home.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Something had changed. And because of that change, Uzu knew that she was in trouble.

In the past the enemy nin's had been few in number. Now their numbers had tripled from three to nine. She could sense them as she reached the place where they had fought with some of the leaf nins the night before, she looked around the little clearing and suddenly felt nervous. She could feel them watching her as she randomly walked from one side of the clearing to another, picking up randon pieces of weaponry and placing a small seal on them (So that she could summon them to her with a thought) and put them back down.

She made it a point to pick up as many bloody kunai and shiriken as possible and randomly, subconciously touched at least four other blades. Two katana and two short swords before moving on to the tree with the bird's nest in it and climbed up and pulled out the odd three tipped cye like blade with a little piece of paper tied around it and pocketed it.

She had stopped a short time ago to make a fake paper that she would switch out with the real one later. She had even gone to the trouble of making the fake look as real as possible. Showing the fake times when the watch switched out and marking six or seven places on the little hand made map where there were several extremly leathal animal traps. So that even if they took the fake map and schedual from her-they would still die.

She'd make sure of it before she was dragged back to the village since she fully intended to lay several traps of her own.

She jumped down out of the tree and mentally commended the enemy for their patience as she started out of the clearing, acting totally oblivious to the fact that they were following her every step of the way, getting ready to make their move no doubt. She made it almost half a mile when a figure jumped down out of a tree in front of her, and she tenses and reached for the pilfered kunai when she noticed the shockingly silver hair as the figure landed lightly on the balls of his feet and straitened his spine to his full height and glared down at her.

She made an 'ekk' sound, mainly because she could'nt remember a time when Kakashi had looked so pissed at her and turned to run away when he reached out and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and lifted her up off of her feet and slipped an arm around her waist and pinned her against his side as he growled in her ear.

"You. Are. In. _So_. _Much_. _Trouble_." He bit out the velvety soft words as he wrapped his fingers around her throat in a threatening manner as his eyes scanned the woods around them. He could smell the scent of fresh blood, sweat, and other things. He could hear the soft almost non existant breaths that the enemy drew into their lungs, could almost hear the eb and flow of blood in their veins. He didn't know their numbers, but he did know that he _could_ take them. But it would be difficult if he kept Uzu with him.

He could probably hide her somewhere in the woods that the enemy didn't know about, but there was no garentee that she would stay where he hid her. And that worried him greatly. "I have to get you out of here." Kakashi said in a soft almost whispered tone as he heard several foot steps from three or four people moving in closer to them from different direction.

Uzu stayed quiet and counted the number of people moving, and calculated when they would break through the under brush and let her chakra flair just a bit and summoned one of the shiriken and waited just a heart beat longer as Kakashi shifted his hold on her and slung her around so that she was on his other side and used the breif action to mask her movement and threw the shuriken and almost smirked when she heard a loud thud as someone called out a name and started swearing.

Kakashi frowned and started to back out of the clearing, his eyes wacthing the bushes and trees for any signs of life.

It would seem that her aim was still pretty good since she had just dropped one person permently while pretending that she had'nt done anything at all. She reached out and grasped a strand of his hair, one of his bangs and tugged at it to get his attention. He glanced at her for a second and she pointed too their left. There was an unmarked trail that led to a small stream with a cozy little cave that she had used to hide in as a child when she was being chased through the area by some of the villagers.

They would be out of the way, unseen and the cave was easier to defend. She and Kakashi could spend the next few days there laying low and picking off the enemy nins if they absolutely had too. Kakashi gave her a questioning look and she whispered. "Go that way." He seemed to be weighing the pro's and con's of doing as she said for a few seconds or so before nodding his head and taking off through the bushes towards the cave.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kakashi stopped running when he reached the fifty foot drop off and stared down at the stream below. Why had Uzu told him to go this way? Was she secretly trying to get him to break _both_ of their necks? _Now what?_ He thought in irritation as he heard the enemy closing in behind them. He could hear them running, leaves and twigs snapping under their feet. These nins must be new to the shinobi ranks or they _would_ be quieter.

Uzu squirmed in his grasp and pushed against his shoulder, he looked down at her and was about to snap at her and tell her to stop when she managed to get away form him and fell to the ground and grasped his wrist and pulled him with her a little bit as she stepped off of the top of the fifty foot hill and slid down the side of the hill as Kakashi made a frustrated sound and followed her further down, grabbing her and settling her over his shoulder as they slid down the drop off and hit the bottom of the hill next to the stream.

Kakashi hit the bottom with a dull thud and rolled three times before settling on his stomach on the ground partually on top of her, breathing hard, and angry. He was hating this situation more and more by the second as he pushed himself upright and glared down at her as she blinked and tried to catch her breath since he had all but almost crushed her a second ago and forced her breath from her lungs. Finally Kakahsi just seemed unable to hold his tongue any more and grabbed her up off of the ground and shook her as he snarled as his heart clenched in his chest.

"What the hell were you thinking? You could have just broken both of our necks! Do you really want to die that badly?"

She made a funny sound and reached up and smacked both of his cheeks sharply, making sure to leave red marks under his mask as she hissed like a little wild cat. "Keep your voice down idiot." Kakashi blinked down at her in shock, just a little stunned that she would smack him, even a little bit. His cheeks burned under hsi mask as he let her go and glared at her, still just a bit pissed.

"First of all, that drop off would have only killed us if you had'nt stopped when you did. Second of all, we're still being followed by eight-" She held up eight fingers in front of his face to make her point. "Eight enemies, so keeping your voice down would be nice. Third of all, you worry too much. I told you that I would be fine and I didn't just walk into these woods without knowing what I would be facing and why. Nor am I so helpless that I would'nt be able to get out of here alive..." She sighed as he stared at her and pointed down the stream a little bit.

"There is a cave over there where I used to hide from the villagers when they would chase me into the woods. It has sleeping bags, clean water, food rations and we can stay there for days if we need too. More than enough time to thin the enemy numbers a bit and return home safely." His jaw dropped as he stared at her in disbelief. Was she serious? Her expression said that she was, still he could'nt seem to wrap his mind around what she had just said.

1) She knew the enemy numbers.

Meaning that she had to have gotten up close with them unless she could sense their chakra.

2) She had led him to a place that only she seemed to know about.

A place where they could both hide out as he picked off the ones threatening them. He'd have to check out the cave and see how easy it was to defend just in case the enemy managed to not only find them but pin them down.

Meaning that she had a plan to get them out of danger.

_This I gotta see. _He thought as he took several deep breaths to calm his frayed nerves and reached out and brushed his knuckles along the curve of her cheek, just happy that she was okay and nodded his head.

"Okay. Show me the way to the cave and we'll settle in for the night." Uzu nodded and stood up, brushing some of the dirt and dust from her pants as she stood and looked around. The cave was a good one hundred and thirty feet from their current position. It was in a well hidden little area with a bunch of trees and bushes. She led him to the cave without another word and stood outside while he checked it out.

He was in awe of her mad survival skills. He really was. Not only did the cave had a small hole in the back of it to function as a fire place without giving away the cave's location but it also had a deep pit to serve as a toilet, a small area with a curtain that was a natural made shower, the sleeping bag had been sealed away in a plastic bag with a fluffy pillow that she must have dragged way out here at some time when she was'nt in trouble, and checked the food rations and other things.

All in all she had enough supplies to live in the cave for quiet a while.

He walked out of the cave and looked at her, wondering why she had'nt cleaned out some of the stuff that made the cave so homey after she had moved in with him, and was just abit hurt by the answer. She had left things here because she had'nt thought that he would want to keep her. "I'm going to set up a perimiter. Go inside and don't come out until I get back." He said gently as he walked past her.

She didn't say anything to him, just brushed past him and walked into the cave without a sound as he sighed.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kakashi walked into the cave two hours later. Having done his job and set a perimiter and some traps to warn them if anyone came close, and sat down at the mouth of the cave and leaned his back against the wall and sighed as Uzu walked up and poked him in the cheek. He glanced at her as she held out a small plastic bowl with some wild berrys and three packests of dry food and a bamboo cup of water.

"You look too tired to move."

_That's because I am._ Kakashi thought tiredly as he took the food and water from her and settled down to eat and drink. He was sorely lacking in enegry right now because of the seal being broken earlier. His body had grown used to not having his chakra levels being fucked with for the past few years, and would have to get reused to the sensations of feeling drained all over again.

It was a pain in the ass but on the up side, once he was used to it again his chakra levels would increase quiet a bit. But right now he just wanted to rest, he was'nt angry at Uzu any more, though he was still a little upset. He ate quietly as Uzu settled down against the wall across from him and drew her knees to her chest. "Have you eaten anything?" Kakashi asked curiously as he took another bite of his food and chewed slowly as he studied her.

She shook her head no and didn't have the heart to tell him that she was too tired to really bother. Today had been a very tiring and trying day for them both and tomorrow promised to be even worse than today. Kakashi sighed and set his bowel and dry food aside and crooked his finger at her and motioned for her to come to him.

She thinned her lips and looked like she wanted to shake her head and stay where she was but he made a soft warning sound, indicating that she really should'nt push his buttons right now and she rolled her eyes at him and moved in close, though he still had to reach for her and drag her into his lap and settled her between his legs so that her back was leaning against his arm and her little legs were slung over one of his legs and gave her a slight squeeze as he picked up the bowel again and picked out a blue berry and put it against her lips.

"You need to eat Uzu. I'd be very upset if you got sick because you didn't take care of yourself."

Uzu didn't open her mouth. Didn't even try and Kakashi made a soft irritated sound and popped the berry in his mouth and gripped her face in his fingers and pressed his lips to hers. Uzu's violet eyes widened as her body went ram rod stiff, her muscels tensing as she felt his tongue licking along her lower lip. Reminding her of her former life, and her husband. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest and for a second she let herself slip into her old and more familiar pattern and parted her lips for him and reached up and tangled her fingers in his silver hair.

He was trying to feed her. She could tell by the way he used his tongue to slip the berry into her mouth before retreating. She whimpered and pulled his head back down the fraction of an inch that he had put between them a second ago and noted the way his face went red as she kissed him, he flailed around for a second not seeming to believe what she was doing and finally managed to remember that he had hands and he could push her away.

He reached up and untangled her fingers from his hair and pushed her back, gently but firmly and stared at her wide eyed. "Uzu...what the hell-"

Uzu stared at him and blinked rapidly as her eyes teared up and she said the three little words that blew him away._ "I love you."_


	11. the affection in a lie

_"I love you." _

Kakashi stared at her in disbelief, his heart slamming against his ribs as if it were trying to punch it's way out of his chest.

_I love you._

It was a lie. No one had said those words to him after hsi father had died.

_I love you._

She was a child.

_I love you._

A child that had been treated like she didn't have the right to exist.

_I love you. _

She didn't know what she was saying. She was acting out because someone had wounded her heart and body and her soul _badly_.

_I love you-_

She didn't even know him! All she knew of him was that he was nice to her and took care of her. She didn't know anything about him beyond that. She didn't know how many people he had killed. Didn't know about his father commiting suicide. Didn't know that the night she was born he had lost everything that even closely resembled a family and a home. Did'nt know that for the first few weeks of her life he had watched her, but had refused to let himself get attached to her because she would probably die on him too.

She didn't know anything about the nights he stayed up drinking, going out whoring, she didn't even know that he some times smoked because it made him feel calm and in control when the world around him was going mad.

God he wished he had thought to bring a pack or two with him earlier. He needed the feeling of control that smoking gave him. He felt like his nerves were fucking shot. And they probably were. He felt her move away from him and flinched as he looked at her face. Shit. He had'nt said anything back.

Uzu's expression went blank and she moved to stand up and walked out of the cave before he could say anything.

He sighed and ran a shaky hand through his hair and tried to think of what he should do. One usually didn't say that they loved another person unless they had meant it but-

She didn't know what she was saying. He was sure of that. Found some comfort in it.

She had'nt meant it the way that he had thought she did. The way that usually ended with sex, marriage proposals and a life time together.

Don't get him wrong, he did love her. He would always love her. Just not _that_ way. Because thinking of her _that_ way after what had happened to her, made him feel sick at heart. He sat quietly until she came back in, nearly three hours after her confession and he told her that he would ignore what she had said. Because he didn't want anything to change and she just stared at him blankly, turning his words over in her mind as her heart shattered into pieces.

Because _everything_ had changed already.

God she hated this. Being so close to him all the time yet not being able to touch him, it was slowly killing her. She wanted him to know her feelings and respond in kind, but Kakashi was just like every other man on the planet. So damn thick headed and stubborn. He would'nt respond to her as long as he saw her as just a child. She sighed and walked over to the sleeping bag and lay down facing away from him and closed her eyes. Kakashi lay down next to her and for once didn't bother to touch her or pull her into his arms. He had even put a little space between their bodies. A small fraction of an inch, but the space was there.

"When we get home...I think I'm going to buy you your own bed, and we'll start sleeping in our own rooms." Like they should have from the start. She she squeezed her eyes closed and curled up on her side, drawing her knees to her chest and tried not to feel like crying.

He was going to try and put distance between them now.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

I'm going to start the next chapter with a brief time skip of three months.

I'm going to tell a little bit about the changes in uzu and kakashi's home life and what leads up to her decision to leave the leaf village. if anyone would care to try and help me write a fer chapters where she's out of the village i would be eternally grateful.

i know that she joins up with akutsuki for a little while, only long enough to steal itachi away from them by telling him that she knows everything about why his clan died. Itachi is facinated by her and later on discovers that she also had a sharigan, making her a not so distant but unknown relitive to his clan. The two leave akusuki after killing haiden and a few others.

And four years later she returns to the leaf village to participate in the chunin exams where she runs into kakashi again.

the time line may be a bit skewered but at least it works.


	12. his mistake

Three months after the woods incident-

Kakashi stood in Uzu's bedroom, next to the bed glaring down at the sleeping girl. What the hell was her problem? He almost snarled as he watched the rythmic rise and fall of her chest as she slept. This was the fifth time in the past week that she had'nt eaten anything and he was at his wits end. Really he was.

Ever since the woods incident there had been an uneasy feeling between them. A strained coexistance that niether of them seemed able to get around.

Maybe it was more his fault than hers but he could'nt stand the thought of her hurting herself to get back at him. And he didn't kid himself, that was exactly what she was doing. She was'nt eating. She was'nt sleeping right. She kept getting into fights at school.

He didn't know what to do anymore. She hardley ever spoke to him now.

She didn't seem to want anything to do with him anymore. And it was driving him crazy!

Since the day that they had walked out of the woods, he had stopped holding her and touching her so much, he had stopped taking baths with her, he had stopped sleeping in the same bed with her and for most part just seemed to ignore her presence. He still took care of her, he still comforted her when she needed him too, or at least he tired too but it was hard to when the person that you were trying to help refused to let you help them.

It had'nt been so bad at first. Mainly because she had still seemed like herself, but now-

Now she was a mere shadow of her former self. She looked paler than she had before, more sickly, the dark circles under her eyes were darker and more noticable, she had lost so much weight from not eating that she sometimes had to go to the hospital and had to be forced to eat.

He was killing her.

Or maybe she was killing herself to get back at him for not saying those damn words back.

He didn't know anymore. All he knew was that it could'nt continue. Enough was enough. If she didn't start eating again soon he was going to lose her for good.

Reaching out he roughly smacked her shoulder with the back of his hand, a small way to vent his frustrations without really hurting her. He felt the fagilness of the bone under her skin and his heart ached painfully. He smacked her shoulder again, this time he woke her up and got a blank look from her when she looked at him over her shoulder. "Get up."

She said nothing. Merely turned her head away from him and closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. He growled, the sound low and threatening as he grasped the covers and yanked them back knowing that the coldness of the air in the room would probably wake her. It did, but she still didn't move. Even when he grasped her wrist and pulled her out of the bed by force. She hit the floor with a dull thud and he heard one of her bones give a sickening cracking sound and froze where he stood, her wrist slipping from his numb fingers as realisation hit him hard.

He had just broken on of her bones.

Her habit of not eating had made her bones so brittle that something like falling out of bed would break them!

He had just hurt her. Panic surged through his system, but he hid it well behind his mask of indifference and knelt down next to her and did a quick check to find the broken bone and found it in her other wrist. There was a large bluish, blackish, purple mark there where she was bleeding under her skin and sighed. "Get up. I need to take you to the hospital again." He said in a disgusted tone.

How could she continue to do this to herself? He wanted to yell at her but had already gone that route before and had only suceeded in making her withdraw further into herself.

She didn't move, she just lay there, looking like a doll that had fallen off of a shelf. He made a strangled sound and grabbed her by the front of her shirt lifting her up off of the floor a little bit and snarled at her, his temper reaching it's end.

He would not watch her destroy herself because of something so stupid. He refused to bury her because she felt that he had rejected her. "I said get up."

She was as silent as a grave, and it hit him that if she ever decided to end her life while he was in the next room, he would never even know it because she was so quiet. Where was the little girl who used to fight with him and joke with him? Had he destroyed her when he had put some distance between them?

He was at his wits end. He wanted his Uzu back. And he made the worst mistake of his life. He said something that he never should have said.

"God I hate you. You annoying little brat-" He missed the way her body jerked a bit and she stared at him with those wide eyes of hers. "If you can't get up and eat something then get the hell out. I don't want to see you any more!" He walked out of the room and down the hall and out the front door, slamming it behind him. Hoping that when he came home he'd find some dirty dishes and be able to breath a sigh of relief.

Instead he came home to an empy apartment, and a note that said,

**_Sorry-_**

And that was it. Nothing else. He looked around the apartment, checking for any signs that she might come back so that he would'nt have to worry.

Some of her clothes were gone, her jutsu scrolls and weapons. A little bit of food.

She was'nt coming back.

He ran through the village calling for her, summoned his Anbu to help him look. Even informed the Hokage that she was missing.

They put together search parties, each one led by one of Kakashi's ninja pups, each one was led in different directions with no trace of the girl.

They had lost her completely.

And he had lost her for good.

They looked endlessly for weeks. The weeks stretching into months before the Hokage called the searchs off. It was pointless to try and found Uzu when she didn't want to be found. Kakashi took the news harder than anyone might have thought.

He broke down, sank to his knees in front of god and everyone and started crying as if the world had just ended.

He was never really the same after that.


	13. time keeps dragging on

Sauna three weeks after leaving the leaf-

A small figure wearing a light brown cloak ran along the roof tops, his little legs pumping just as fast as he could go, his heart pounding in his chest, tears stinging his eyes as sand, his sand swirled up like a great dark cloud around him. Protecting him from the lethal blades aimed at his back. Why? Why was the man in the black mask doing this? Why was he attacking him? He hadn't done anything wrong!

He had just delivered some cookies to the kid that he had accidentally hurt earlier today.

Nothing more.

All he wanted was a friend. All he wanted was affection. All he wanted was to understand!

Why did everyone attack him and hurt him? He wanted to know. He stumbled, his steps faltering a little bit and his sand vanished from the air and appeared directly under him. Cushioning his fall to the hard stone as the ninja quickly made his way over the roof top to him and stared down at him as he looked up.

"Monster."

He started to cry. His body shaking with fear. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die before he made a friend. "I-I'm not." He denied in a weak voice. He had heard himself being referred to as a monster since the day of his birth by everyone around him. Yet didn't understand why he was the monster. There were other children in the village. Why weren't they monsters too?

"Oh? Would you care for me to prove that your a monster?" The man asked in a slightly curious tone, his voice causing the child to shiver and flinch as the man reached for him. Intending to hurt him until he showed his true colors when someone spoke, causing both the man and his intended victim to freeze and looked to their...left?

"God you grown ups are so unbelievably stupid. If he says he isn't a monster, you should listen." The masked figure looked at the one who had spoken and was just a little surprised to see a girl about the boy's age standing on the edge of the roof wearing a black cloak, pants and a deep red shirt. She looked pale, dangerously thin, sickly even. Yet there was such strength in her eyes.

"Do you even know of who you speak little one?" The man asked malicously. The girl tilts her head to the side and gives the two an angelic smile.

"Of course. He is Sabaku no Gaara." She said as she looked at the trembling boy and gave him a kind smile before shifting her attention back to the man and saying in a cold tone.

"Leave my _brother _alone." She holds her hand out to Gaara and he looks back and forth between the man and the girl. Wondering if this was some sick joke that the villagers had come up with when she spoke to him.

Her voice gentle and coaxing. He could have listened to her speak forever, she had such a pretty voice. "Gaara, come with me and I'll see to it that _no one ever_hurts you again." Gaara swallowed past the lump in his mouth and quickly scurried over to her and took her hand. She pulled him up on the edge with her and wraps her slender arms around the red head and glares at his uncle.

"Tell the Kazakage that all of you had better hope that I never come here again...or I'll use the nine tailed fox to burn your village to cinders."

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kakashi sat in Uzu's old room lightly holding a stuffed animal that he had gotten for her. His eyes stung from lack of sleep, and from the tears. It had been weeks and the Hokage had finally called off the searches. Figuring that if they hadn't found Uzu by now that they probably never would.

He would probably never see his little Uzu-chan again. Pain lanced his heart again as he thought of the last words that he had spoken to her. The last words that he might ever speak to her. And they had been so cold and cruel. "_I hate you. If you can't eat anything, then get the hell out. I don't want to see you!" _

She had given him what he had said that he wanted. And he couldn't take any of it back now. It was simply too late. She was gone. He couldn't find her.

Maybe because she didn't want to be found. Maybe because she was dead in a ditch somewhere. He didn't know. But it didn't stop him from feeling like a total dick. Or for feeling sorry. This was his fault. He had spoken to her just like everyone else in the village had. It didn't matter if he hadn't meant the words, he had hurt her, and she had left.

He would have left too if their roles were reversed and someone had spoken to him like that.

He was such an idiot.

He lifted the stuffed toy to his nose and inhaled deep. Even now after being handled so much, the toy still smelled like her. Like soap, sunflowers, and innocence. He squeezed his eyes closed and buried his face against the toy and sobbed.

God he hated himself. He hated himself so much.

There was a soft tapping at the bedroom window and he looked up at the little bird there and took a second to regain control over his emotions before he put the little toy back in it's new home, under his vest, right over his heart, and stood up and opened the window and took the small piece of paper attached to the bird's leg. He had a new mission.

He took a shuddering breath and closed the window. The village had forgotten about his precious Uzu. They had all but abandoned her. And he was forced to do the same a little more each and every day.

Time dragged on.

Leaving him lonely. Twisted and broken. His heart beating for the one that he may never see again.

And he wished that he could join her where ever she may be.

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Three months later-

Uzu walked the crowded streets, her head down, her jacket hood up, weaving her way in and out of the throng of people. Heading back to Gaara and their little hotel room where he was resting and waiting on her to return.

Her mind was mercifully blank as she passed a brothel and an elderly gentlman with long white hair staggered out. "Come see us again honey!" One of the women called out to the man and he just grinned and waved back.

"Oh I will beautiful! I still have plenty of research to do!" The man called back and Uzu froze for a second, her heart hammering in her chest and she looked up and blinked at the guy as he staggered towards her.

She opened her mouth and spoke before she realised what she had done, her mind in shock at seeing the toad sage alive and well and drunk as a skunk in front of her. "Master Jiraiya?"

The man suddenly seemed to sober up and glanced at her. She quickly ducked her head and turned and started weaving her way back down the street that she had just come from and knew the instant that his curiosity got the best of him and he started to follow her. Discreetly. Making sure to stay twenty or more feet behind her.

Her heart kicked into over drive and she tried to shunshin away. And he followed her.

Jiraiya couldn't believe his eyes as he followed the small cloaked figure. He had heard that his god daughter had gone missing from the village, but to actually run into her-or rather to stumbel out of a brothel in the red light district and have his name called out like that...

It was just a bit suspicious. Especially since the girl shouldn't have even known him. But he had seen her face, even if it had only been for a second or so but it had been enough to tell him who she was. He doubted that any of his enemies would or could disguise themselves so cleverly. She rounded a corner and he picked up his pace, almost starting to run because he didn't want to lose her.

He rounded the corner and stopped when he saw her cloak laying on the ground and bent down to pick it up and looked around as a young woman in her early twenties, a beautiful one with lush curves and long black hair walked by him, distracting him just a bit as he scanned the sea of faces in the street.

He had lost her. Even so he could'nt help smiling. Because now he could go back to the village and report on everything.

Uzu made it back to the hotel without further incident and grabbed her things as Gaara collected his. They had more or less done what they had come to do, and now it was time to move on. Uzu-nii had said that she wanted to be out of the city in an hour. She had also said that they would be disguising themselves as Gypsy's.

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Sarutobi stared at the silver haired man in the hospital bed, worried about the man's health. The latest mission had ended badly. Almost all of Kakashi's team had been wiped out by the overwelming number of shinobi that they had been facing, because someone hadn't done their damn job and given very accurate information. It was sad that out of a team of ten Anbu under Kakashi's leadership, they would have to bury seven.

"Kakashi are you trying to get your self killed?" The elder asked as he studied the bloody bandages around the man's chest, he had been run through there. Repeatedly. Each wound had become more and more dangerously close to his heart. And Kakashi had just stood there and took it while trying to shield one of his team.

"Does it really matter?" Kakashi mumbled under his breath as he continued to stared over to the left at the blood soaked toy laying next to his head. It had been torn into pieces under his vest when he was being stabbed, his blood had soaked through the fabric and into the stuffing staining it a deep crimson. And even though it was ruined almost beyond repair, and carried the scent of his blood, he could still smell _her. _

And it comforted him. Because for a little while he could pretend that she was laying next to him, napping or something.

And he didn't feel so lost and alone.

The elder sighed and was about to say something else when the hospital door opened and a tall man with long white hair pulled back into a pony tail walked in. "Yo, Sarutobi-sensei." The man greeted as the elder stood up out of his chair. A look of surprise on his face.

"Jiraiya! What are you doing back so soon?" The Kage had'nt expected the man to return for at least another year or so.

"Well, I finished the mission that you gave me..." The sage looked over at Kakashi and shook his head. The boy didn't look too good. "And I've also got news about Uzu Uzumaki too." The man said after several heart beats, as if he had silently been debating with himself on what he should or shouldn't say to them.

Kakashi jack knifed into a full upright position and cried out in pain and wrapped his arms around himself as he felt the stitches in his skin tear open a bit. Sarutobi swore softly and with Jiriaya's help pushed the younger man back down onto the bed without hurting him any further and kept their hands firmly on his shoulders as Jiraiya told them that he had run into the girl and lost her again.

He told them about his encounter with his god daughter at least a dozen times before the Kage looked at Kakashi and smiled.

The man had finally been able to breath a sigh of relief, and for the first time in so many months he had managed to fall asleep smiling.

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Two years after leaving the leaf-

Itachi Uchiha had been on a job. He was to find, and kill a politician because they had been hired to do so. He had already found the man and had even planned out the attack that he would kill him with. His mission would be over with soon. And he was relieved, because it mean that he would be able to go back tot he other Akutsuki guys for a well earned pat on the back and maybe even a little vacation time. He _hated_ killing no matter the reason.

He had been walking out of the seedy little hotel that he was staying in, way on the outskirts of town when a ball rolled into his way and a little girl with soft blond hair and a sunny smile came running up to get it. He bent down and picked it up and held it out to her.

She smiled and took the ball and mumbled a shy 'thanks' and looked at him. She had such pretty eyes. Nothing at all like his cursed ones.

She said something about him being pretty and he smiled and was about to think her when he noticed that her eyes had changed. The violet turning a pale ruby red with little markings around the pupils that shifted and bled and stretched out until they resembled shuriken. He took a step back from her, pale and shaking as she stared up at him with the eyes of one of his clan.

"Itachi-" He blinked and came back to his senses a bit and stared at her, his expression blank. How did she know his name? "I know many things Itachi. My eyes can do more than see."

"Who are you?"

"Does it really matter? I came here to speak with you."

He growled, "Why?" For what purpose?

"To help you clear your name and return you to your brother's side."

His heart stuttered in his chest and he blinked at her again at a total loss for words. "You know my brother?"

"Yeah. We went to school together up until two years ago."

_A fellow leaf. _Itachi thought in wary amusement. No wonder she knew who he was and who his brother was and what he had done. She had probably heard all of the stories and rumors flying around the village. Still he was curious.

He knew for a fact that he hadn't missed anyone when he had killed the clan. So how did this girl have cursed eyes like him? And how exactly did she intend to clear his name?

Uzu knew what he was going to ask before he even opened his mouth. "I'm a cousin to your clan. My sharigan is an anomaly. Because of it I was abandoned."

Itachi mulled over that answer and supposed that it wasn't entirely impossible. "Alright cousin. Answer me this-how would you clear my name?" _The answer had better be good if you want to keep breathing._The Uchiha thought darkly. He had been given specific instructions to kill anyone that found him.

The girl smiled at him and tilted her head and said in a sing song voice. "Blame-it-on-Mandera-"


	14. 4 yrs later

Four years after leaving the leaf village-

Uzu walked out of the cave and stretched as she stiffled a yawn. "Where are you off too little cousin?" Itachi asked as he dropped down out of the trees above her and lightly landed on the balls of his feet. Uzu looked at him and smiled that I-know-something-you-don't-know smile of hers, the one that always got them into trouble and back out of it again.

It had been two years since his little cousin had made him while he was on a mission and had talked to him about '?Madara?' Two years since hearing that the great Uchiha clan had a few stragglers and after he had investigated the one that his cousin had told him about. Two years since he had stared the mad man in the face and realised that his cousin had come to him to save him from a future even more damning than the life he'd had already.

After learning the truth, and seeing it with his own eyes, he had grabbed his cousin and her little friend and run like hell. Though he had been worried that he wouldn't be able to save the two children when the others came looking for him.

Turns out that he need'nt have bothered himself to worry, the two kids were very handy in a fight. So much so that Itachi had'nt even had to lift a finger to help out.

In the two years that Itachi had become a rogue for the second time, they had spent a little bit of time in demon country, wave, bird country and several others, just hanging around, training, and helping anyone that had needed it. Itachi found it fascinating just how many lives that they had saved in that time. And the girl and her friend had both done everything to make sure that he wouldn't have to kill any more.

When Itachi had asked Uzu why she was going to such pains to make sure that he didn't ever kill again she had given him the saddest smile and told him that she knew that he hated killing. It simply wasn't in his nature to hurt others.

And it was true.

He had been an jounin since he was a child, and Anbu since he was thirteen. He knew pain. He knew suffering. And he knew death in all of it's forms. Yet he had been strangely touched by what she was trying to do for him and had decided to let her try to clear his name too.

They had returned to the leaf village little over a week ago and had been staying well under the radar in the cave outside of the village in the back woods. It was apparently a spot that Uzu had found when she was being chased around by the villagers.

"I'm going into town. Today is a friend's birthday and I want to wish him well." Uzu finally said after a lengthy pause. Gaara jumped down out of the tree that he had been meditating in and walked over to her.

"You'll be back?" It was a question that the red head asked often because of his insecurities. Itachi sometimes found himself doing the same, but usually ended up saying nothing no matter how worried he was.

Uzu smiled at Gaara and reached out and pulled him down to her just a fraction of an inch and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll be back in a few days. Try not to go nuts on anyone until I get back." She said gently. Gaara blinked at her and nodded his head in understanding. Uzu was under a lot of stress right now because she still had to go see the Hokage about Itachi-nii.

Itachi walked up to her and got a quick hug-it was a habit that he had developed shortly after joining up with his cousin. "Don't be gone too long or we'll come looking for you." He said softly so that only she could hear him. He felt her kiss his cheek like she did Gaara's as he let her go and watched her shunshin away.

He looked at Gaara and smiled a bit. Picking on the boy was one of the few pleasures he had left in life. "So Gaara-"

"I'm not your damn wife, Itachi. Take care of whatever it is, _yourself_." Gaara snarled at him before he ran into the cave. Itachi grinned happily. He'd probably be torn to pieces by Gaara's sand if he picked on him too much, yet somehow he just couldn't bring himself to care all that much.

"Oh Gaara, I know of this little place on the outskirts of the village-" Itachi said in a sing song voice as he followed the boy around. He wasn't going to bother to tell him that it was a strip club and that he was going to take him there to educate him on the opposite sex.

A little mischief was good for the soul. And a little tail was good for the body. Embarrassing Gaara however-was good for his heart.

Ah, good times...

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Sarutobi was walking through the hall to his private rooms, eager to lay down and get some rest for a little while.

It felt like it had been ages since he had been free of his paper work. He reached the room he planned to use today (he liked to move from one room to another at random so that if something happened, he wouldn't have to deal with it right away) and opened the door and nearly had a heart attack when he saw a tall girl with long soft blond hair wearing dark clothes standing in the middle of his room.

The girl turned her head and looked at him and his jaw dropped as he quickly entered the room and slammed the door shut behind him and locked it. _Okay, no need to panic here. It was just Uzu._ She had finally come home to see him and he was happy yet at the same time he was also planning to snap a leash around the damn girl's neck to prevent her from running away again.

Yes, that was it a leash would work if it was infused with some of his chakra. His heart thudded in his chest as he looked her over while secretly plotting on somehow sealing her in this room and keeping her locked up so that she couldn't scare him to death any more. "Uzu?"

"Hi jiji. How have you been?" She asked as if she really wanted to know. As if she hadn't run away from him and everything else. He wanted to be furious with her for leaving without any notification, without a single damn hug or goodbye, he wanted too. He really, really did but strangely enough he understood why she had done it. He had secretly spoken to Inoichi several weeks after she had left and the man had told him about what he had found when he had spoken with her, and about the way Kakashi's withdrawn from her had hurt her even more.

Her young mind and heart had'nt been able to cope with the strain and as a result she had decided to either die or leave.

She had left so that she would know peace.

And to be perfectly honest he had understood her reasons and hadn't expected to ever hear or see her again. So he was sort of having mixed feelings about seeing her now. On one hand he was very happy and on the other some deeper part of him wanted to push her out the door and run like hell. The council had been out for her blood since they had found out that she was missing. No doubt that they would say that she was a traitor and such and try to have her killed once they knew that she was back.

And it might work if not for the fact that she had 1) Been terribly abused. and 2) She hadn't even been a ninja when she left, so really they couldn't charge her for anything criminal.

"I've been..." _Swamped with paper work, worrying myself to death, watching Kakashi kill himself slowly, waiting for you to come back!_ "Good?" He winched as he said the last part and she gave him a tight lipped smile and sat down on the bed and patted the spot next to her. He looked around nervously, _anyone_knowing of Kakashi's obsession with the girl would do the same if they didn't want _their _hearts ripped out of their chests.

And after a second or so of paranoia he managed to stop freaking himself out enough to sit down next to her and sighed in relief when Kakashi didn't come through the window, or out of the closet. "We need to talk about some things." Uzu said after several seconds and the elder looked at her curiously.

Was she finally going to say something against the people who had hurt her? Did she finally feel safe enough and trust him enough to talk to him like she used too?

She reached out and took the elders hand and gave him a tight lipped smile and told him everything from the beginning. The destruction of the village, her death, what she knew of the Kyubbi's involvement.

Why she had run away, and why she had come back. She told him everything. Making sure to leave out none of the key details, and even mentioning that she knew what had happened with the Uchiha clan, and the Coup de ta that they had been planning to grab more power for themselves and how the council had ordered Itachi to kill them all.

He had'nt believed her at first, possibally thinking her insane until she had told him everything about Itachi and had even showed him her sharigan eyes.

Reality hit him hard as the elder finally saw her for who she really was. An innocent bystander who had taken up the mantle of responsibility when she could have simply walked away and left them to their fates.

"What do you need me to do?" He asked after a lengthy pause. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand and told him that she just needed him to be ready when she gave him the signal.

Then she told him not to worry too much, she wasn't leaving again and then she left him to his thoughts.

(****************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kakashi's birthday-

Kakashi was laying in the bed in Uzu's old room, like he often did when he came home from work after a long day. He had stopped sleeping in his bed simply because it felt too big and lonely to him and had sort of moved into Uzu's room. He loved it in here. Her scent clung to everything. The bed, the sheets, the toys, the curtains. Even the walls smelled like her. Almost as if she had rubbed herself up against them until her scent and some of the oils in her skin had soaked into the wall paper.

She would be fourteen now. A shinobi like him. A genin in need of training.

He closed his eyes and buried his face in the pillow and breathed deep. He would have loved to be the one to train her. He could have taught her anything that she could have ever wanted to know. But it was merely wishful thinking on his part, he knew that he hadn't exactly endeared himself to her towards the end.

He still wanted to take those words back. He'd even tell her that he loved her if she would listen.

He inhaled again, breathing deeply almost as if he were worried that something would happen to her things and erase her scent from the room, he hugged her pillow and frowned when he felt his body start to harden and drew back away form the bed a bit. Rising up on his elbows and wondering why_ that_ was happening.

He found it very odd that in recent months he had started to get aroused whenever he smelled her scent. It could be a simple reaction to the smell of a female or it could be something that had to do with his blood line limit. Whatever it was that was causing it, it disturbed him. He became irritated with himself because he would have to leave the room and relieve himself before he settled in for the night.

Today was the copy nin's birthday, and he had had a rough time ducking his fellow man and getting home because he didn't particularly feel like celebrating. He just wanted to be left in peace to nurture his growing obsession for the one that he had chased away. And he no longer kidded himself-he was obsessed. Had known that he was obsessed with Uzu for little over a year now.

He simply couldn't leave her things alone. And he was pretty sure that if she were here he would'nt be able to leave her alone either.

He sighed and lay back down on the bed on his stomach and tried to ignore the ache in his loins. He didn't want to move from this spot. He just wanted to lay here, sniff her things and go to sleep and dream of her.

He must have dozed off after an hour or so because he woke up a short time later on his back with his hand wrapped around his dick, a soft moan escaping his throat as he thought about her. He imagined her face hovering above his own, her soft lips touching the skin of his cheek, his jaw. He could almost feel the mattress dip as she climbed into the bed and pushed his hand away from his dick and wrapped her fingers around it and start pumping, slowly.

It was agonising how slowly she was going as she pressed her lips to his and he moaned again as her tongue licked along his lower lip. It reminded him of the kiss that she had given him back at the cave, only this one was more aggressive and appealed to the wildness building under his skin. She broke the kiss and shifted so that she was resting between his legs and licked him.

He cried out and fisted his fingers in the bed sheets. It felt so good that he hardly noticed the slow burn spreading through his body any more. She licked him again, her little pink tongue flicked across the slit in the head of his cock. "Your in heat." The simple words cut partially through his pleasure hazed mind and he lifted his head up off of the pillow and stared at her for a second.

"Wha?" Wow, he sounded so intelligent. Didn't he?

She sucked lightly on the tip and he gritted his teeth and tried to resist the urge to tangle his fingers in her hair and force her to take more of him. She lifted her head as her hair slipped over her shoulders and brushed up against him. It was longer than he remembered it being. But that didn't really matter to him, no what he wanted to know was what she had meant when she had said that he was in heat.

He didn't recall ever going into heat before when he had used his blood line limit. So why would he start now? She kissed the head of his cock and then his abdomen over one of the scars that he had gotten on a mission six months ago. He made a soft growling sound as she kissed her way up his body until they were face to face. Her breath was warm against his own and he could smell himself on her.

It was the most heady scent he had ever smelled. "Your blood line limit causes you to go into heat when ever you imprint on another person."

"Imprint?" He asked stupidly and she smiled at him and ran her little finger nails along his scalp, gently. He made a soft sound and lifted his head, needing to lean into her touch.

"Obsess, Kakashi. When you imprint, you become obsessed with that person. You _want_ that person, you _need_ that person. You _long_ to touch them. And when their gone you feel as if you are dying..."

He lifted his hands from the bed and tangled them in her hair pulling her head back a little bit so that he could nip at her. Intending the 'nip' to be a form of punishment because she had left him alone, but it was much softer than he had intended. "When your gone, I feel like I'm dying." Kakashi said as he kissed her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him as he ravished her mouth.

He could taste himself on her tongue, slightly salty and spicy. But her taste was so much better. She tasted so sweet, almost like his favorite candy. Honey drops. He broke the kiss and nuzzled her jaw, scraping his fangs along her throat. "I need you."

He licked her red marks that his fangs had left behind and slipped his hands under her shirt and pulled it up, leaning back a little bit so that he could pull it over her head before attacking the curve of her shoulder with his mouth and sucking hard. She gasped and gripped his shoulders as he filled his hands with her breasts before pulling back and growling. "Where did these come from?" They were much bigger than he had expected them to be. He tested the soft weight, molded them with his hands and shivered when he felt her pebbled nipples rubbing against his palms.

"I drank a lot of milk while I was gone."

He raised a brow at her. "Milk?" Seriously, that had to be the lamest excuse that he had ever heard.

She frowned at him in the darkness and hissed at him. "It's been four years. Did you think I'd still be flat?"

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders and leaned her back over his arm and nuzzled her breasts. To be honest, he probably wouldn't have cared if she had come back flat as a board. He could have helped by massaging her chest as much as she wanted him too. She twitched when she felt his tongue glide along the swell of her left breast before he latched on to her nipple and bit it gently before sucking.

She cried out and gripped his shirt in her hands, digging her sharp nails into his skin. He made a strange sound and lifted his head as he shifted his position on the bed and lay her on the matress and covered her body with his own. His lips leaving a little wet trail down to her stomach where he ran his tongue along the outside of her belly button before he dipped it inside.

She made a strangled sound and tangled her hands in his hair and pulled until he was looming over her, their faces mere inches apart. She had a strange look on her face as she reached up and caressed his scarred cheek with her finger tips. He hissed and closed his eyes, loving the way it felt to have her hands on him like this. "Do you really need me Kakashi?" She asked after several seconds and he blinked and came back to his senses enough to know what she was talking about.

His heart ached in his chest and he almost started crying like he had the day the searches had been called off. He kissed her. Letting her feel him need, his desire, and his feelings for her. He kissed her breathless and pulled back panting. "I do need you. I want you. No one else will do." He said honestly, because now he understood his own feelings for her. It had taken him years to really figure them out, and no that he knew he wouldn't _let_ her leave him again.

_Not ever_.

She looked doubtful and he chose this time to tell her what he had wanted to say to her since the beginning. He framed her face in his hands, brushing his thumbs across her kiss swollen lower lip. "I'm sorry that I said those things. I didn't mean them, I was just so frustrated-" He kissed her slowly, deeply, tenderly. "You were wasting away right in front of me and I couldn't even stop it. I felt so helpless and frustrated, but I should never have said those things. I do love you-" He kissed her again, unable to take the pained expression on her face any longer.

"I do want you." He murmured in a husky voice as he nuzzled her neck, nipping playfully at the skin. He could feel her heart pulsing under his lips, the frantic fluttering telling him that she didn't really beleive him but didn't want to say anything.

"I do need you. So fucking much..." He breathed as he gripped her hips and pulled her back a bit so that he could grind himself against her. She cried out, her voice sending a shiver down his spine as he panted against her skin. His body temputer suddenly spiking to the point where he was starting to sweat. The slow burn under his skin got more intense driving reason out the door as she pushed him back a bit and quickly slipped her pants off.

He needed her right now, and to be perfectly honest with herself, she wanted him too. She knew that he was trying to hold himself back, but he was only hurting himself by doing so. She didn't need him to treat her like some delicate piece of glass anymore. He watched her, his mis matched eyes appearing to glow in the darkness, staring, unblinking as they watched her every movement as she let her pants fall to the floor and held her hand out to him.

He grasped her hand and pulled her back onto the bed somehow knowing that she was nervous and might not be able to do it on her own. He kissed her and slipped a hand between her legs to see if she was prepared for him, he was just a little bit shocked by how wet she was, his fingers came away covered in her juices. He gave her a dirty look because now he was'nt able to play with her a little longer and sighed and shook his head.

"You need to work on this." He said as he held his hand up in front of her face and nearly came when she grasped his hand and brought it down to her lips and licked his fingers clean. He groaned and pulled his hand free of her grasp and positioned himself against her slick heat and looked at her. "You never said if you would forgive me or not."

"That's because I'm still mad at you." Uzu said with a cheeky grin and he smiled and slowly pushed his cock inside of her.

"You'll tell me what I have to do to be forgiven right?"

"Nope. I'm going to let you twist in the wind just a little longer." She said as she gripped the sheets as he entered her, she had to grit her teeth to keep from crying out, he felt so much bigger than she recalled, her body stretched to it's limit as she tried to breath through the stinging sensation before trying an experimental move. Lifting her hips and pushing against him. She gasped as he growled and gripped her hips to hold her still.

"Don't do that-" He growled from between clenched teeth. His control was just barely holding on by a thread and he didn't want to fuck things up and hurt her.

She made a throaty whimpering sound and looked up at him. "But it feels good." She said as he pushed himself a little deeper and she wrapped her legs around his hips and helped him along. He stiffened and she gasped as she felt his cock brush up against the wall of her womb.

"Oh god..."

"Uzu-" Kakashi said her name warningly as he braced himself on his elbows above her. She didn't listen.

"Shut up and just fuck me Kakashi." She snapped as she raised her hips up off of the bed and pulled him deeper. His control frayed a little more and he started thrusting, slowly at first, then faster and harder. He leaned into her, needing to feel his skin against her own as he fucked her into the mattress, silently vowing to himself that if this wasn't a dream that he would go slower and lover her the way that she deserved to be loved later.


	15. extrem measures

Kakashi cracked one eye open as the sunlight filtered through the curtains on the window and groaned. He was sweating, his body abnormally hot. His muscles and joints ached as if he had a fever. And if it was'nt for the slow burn under his skin, the one that made his blood feel like it was on fire, he might have thought that he _was_ sick. Except-

Except that he could recall everything from last night. His dream had'nt been a dream at all.

The information might have caused him to panic, if he was'nt so fucking comfortable right now. He was laying on top of Uzu who was stretched out on her stomach under him, her head turned to the right, her soft blond hair tangled around her face and shoulders, her breathing shallow and even. Their bodys still joined together. Kakashi frowned a bit and kissed her shoulder. Wondering if they had fallen asleep in this position.

He lifted himself up a bit and brushed her hair back from her face and sucked in a breath and held it.

Gods she had grown up so much in the past four years, her body had regained much of the wieght that she had lost before she had left oluse an extra ten pounds or so. Her body had developed into that of a woman's rather nicely. The little girl that he had known so many years ago had become a lovely young woman. He rubbed his face against the soft skin along her spine, nuzzling her shoulder before kissing it again.

Uzu moaned softly and twitched under him, her body giving a small barely noticable jerk and he grinned. Thanks to using her as a pillow, he was ready for round...well whatever. He was still ready for her. He kissed her cheek and rocked his hips gently, wanting to wake her up as pleasently as he could.

She gasped in her sleep and her eyes fluttered open. "Kashi?"

He made a humming sound and moved again as he pressed his lips against her neck. She shivered and pushed back against him as he moved, causing them both to moan. "I don't think I can take much more of this-" Uzu groaned as he pushed himself deeper inside of her.

He licked her nape, scraped his fangs along the sensitive skin there and smiled against her skin as he picked up his pace a little. He was already so close to the edge, and her body was clenching and squeezeing around him like crazy. "Just a little longer-" He begged as he ran his hands along her arms and gripped her hands as they gripped the sheets. She gasped and shuddered as she focused on the part of him gliding in and out of her body at such a quick and rapid pace. His balls slapped against her with each thrust, driving her senses higher until she could'nt take any more and she came screaming and sobbing his name.

He slipped his arms under her body and pushed himself up onto his knees and fell back so that she was sitting in his lap, his cock still buried in her softness as she clenched and milked him until he came too.

He held her. It was the first time in a long time that he had touched her, and as much as she was loath to admit it, she was soaking up the attention. Her affection starved mind eating up every touch, every kiss, every softly whispered word as if it might be the last time anyone ever touched her.

Kakashi was the same way.

It was well after two in the afternoon and she had yet to convince the man that getting up and getting something to eat might be in their best intrest. He stubbornly kept refusing to let her out of bed even to go to the bathroom because he was afraid that she would leave him again. She would'nt. She had decided a long time ago that this was the way it would be.

She would leave for a little while and do what she had too, then come back to him. Even though he had hurt her. Even though he had broken her heart. She still loved him, and knew deep down that he had'nt meant to hurt her or say those terrible things. She was'nt mad at him anymore. Not really.

But she had her pride as a vindictive female, and she was'nt going to tell him that she had forgiven him until he proved himself to her.

Some food would be a nice start since she had'nt eaten anything in the past-

She looked at the clock across the way from the bed as Kakashi was trying to kiss her. She was a little slow to respond to the feel of his lips and he got the distinct impression that she was a little distracted and sighed. Crap.

After one night in bed with her, he had lost her attention. "Nineteen hours..." Uzu said after a second or so. Kakashi looked at her and frowned. Ninteen hours? Till what? What was she thinking?

"Nineteen hours?" Kakashi asked suspicously. His mind already forming several extrem plans from his 'evil' list, to keep her exactly where she was.

1)He'd tie her up.

2) He'd have to pull an Anko and break both of her legs.

He cringed and buried his face against her breasts and shuddered. **_He. Was. Not. Going. To. Do. That. _**It was just cruel and unusual and she would never let him touch her again. And that would suck since he finally understood what she had meant last night about being in heat and imprinting.

3) He'd sic Gai on her.

That alone should scare her into staying put.

It was the same tactic that the Hokage had used on him when he had tried to leave the village to go look for her. Gai _had_ run him in circles around fire country for a week before he had finally given up and was dragged back, sulking.

4) He could probably knock her up and keep her like that until she decided that leaving was simply not good for her or the baby's.

He lifted his head to peek at her face and wondered just how badly she'd kick his ass if he carried through with _that _plan since it was his favorite. She looked down at the top of his head and saw the tiny sliver of color from his eyes, staring at her from under his bangs and smiled.

The man must think she was stupid not to already know about his 'evil' plans. He'd written the damn things out in a note book several months ago, in the living room and hidden his little list of ways to keep her from leaving him again, in the book self among his precious porn. She'd found it last night when she had been putting his birthday present among his other books. Since she was from the future, and had read the books before, she had used her knowledge to write out books six through nine and had had them published under Jiraiya's name.

The toad sage was going to have a fit once he found out that he was being credited with someone elses work, but inevitably he'd move on. After he tore apart the entire country of fire looking for the _real_ author of Itcha Itcha books six-nine, that is. Although...that in itself would be very amusing since he'd never find her.

"Kakashi...I really am hungry. Can we _please_ eat something?" _Please let me out of bed before you can try to carry out you diabolical pan._ Uzu thought as he raised up on one elbow to look down at her.

"Are you really? Or are you trying to escape from me?" If he was expecting her to be totally honest with him and give him an excuse to knock her up, then he was crazy.

"Yes I'm really hungry." _And I'm sort of trying to escape._ Kakashi raised a brow at her and studied her. She looked calm and relaxed, but the frantic throbbing of her pulse in her neck told him that she was at least half lying to him.

He made an irritated sound and wrapped his fingers around her throat and leaned down a little bit as he squeezed, not enough to hurt her or cut off her air, just enough to let her know that he meant it when he said.

"God help you if I see you _anywhere_ near the door or windows without my permission, Uzu." Her eyes widened a bit and he let his fingers relax and slide aross her skin as he moved back and got out of bed. Watching her expression to know if she understood his threat or not.

She did. And he felt himself smirk a little bit despite the fact that frightening her in such a way sickened him. He watched her quietly as she started to get dressed, and only innervened when she finished pulling on her panties and reached for her shirt. He grasped her wrist and stopped her from picking up her pants and shirt. He didn't want her dressed so that she could run out the door the first chance that she got.

He'd had four long and lonely years of waiting, wanting and worrying about her and knew that by sleeping with her last night he had changed their relationship drastically and all but claimed her as his, which was fine with him. He'd used that time well to think of ways to keep her with him if she ever came back.

He'd do whatever it took to keep her by his side.

He'd bind her in chains.

Lock her away.

Erase her memories and make new ones.

He'd even go so far as to keep her weakened, tamper with the seal on her body and love her like a pet if he had too.

He didn't want too, but he was bloody desperate right now.

He picked up the shirt that he had been wearing the night before and handed it to her and quickly gathered her shirt and pants and weapons up and threw them out the window. She gave him an amused look before she shook her head and pulled his shirt on over her head and pulled it down as far as it would go.

So that was the way it was now. She was a prisoner.

She wished that she could say that she was suprised...but she'd be lying if she did. She knew Kakashi well enough to know how his mind worked. "So this is the way you want to keep me?"

He looked away from the window and stared at her, unblinking, unremorseful of his actions. He didn't give a damn if she hated him or not for throwing her clothes and weapons out the window. He needed her helpless or he might end up hurting her when she started to fight him. And she would-maybe. Depending on what happened once they were out of the bedroom and how many rules he laid out for her to follow. He knew his girl was'nt so great at listening.

His eyes told her everything that she needed to know. And though it was stupid of him, it was also damn flattering in it's own way. Kakashi was'nt the type to leave his mate unprotected or unwatched. He had'nt exactly been this _bad_ before but then again she had never left his side before so technically his stupidity was _her _fault. "I'll do whatever I deem nessisary to keep my mate." Kakashi said after a second or so of silence and Uzu raised a brow at him.

"So I'm your mate now?" She was teasing him. Or maybe she was actually fishing for information. Whatever the reason she needed him to be perfectly clear in his intentions.

He nodded his head slowly as he moved away from the window and walked over to her, stopping just shy of touching her and leaned down a bit and whispered. "I. Will. Keep. You." It was a promise. One that he had given to her on their wedding day once upon a time. She could hear the senserity in his voice. She could hear the anger, the torment, and the worry that went along with the words and sighed as she reached out and wrapped her arms around his middle. Catching him slightly off guard, he blinked and stared at the top of her head for a second then hugged her.

Simply enjoying the way that it felt to have her in his arms again. He let go of her several seconds later and grasped her hand and pulled her along behind him as he walked down the hall to the living room then pushed her down on the couch and summoned one of his most favored ninken and smiled cheerfully at her as he gave the dog an order to rip one of her legs off if she tried to go out the door.

Uzu stared at him wide eyed, a comical look on her face. "You can't be serious, Kakashi."

Kakashi gave her a wicked smile and and walked into the kitchen to cook their breakfast.

Oh he was serious all right.


	16. what have you been up too

Uzu glared at the amused expression on the copy nin's face as he gracefully dropped down on the floor just in front of her in a pair of sweat pants that he had slipped on earlier and handed a piece of bacon to the large wolf dog that he had ordered to watch her before handing her plate to her. "Eat up honey." He said gently as he picked up a piece of bacon and bit it in half.

Uzu growled at him and picked at her food. Occasionally taking a bite or two and the rest of the time pushing it around on her plate. He studied her and shook his head, some habits never change. She had used to push her food around and glare at him when she was a kid. Way, way back when she had actually liked him.

He wondered if her feelings for him had changed any. Though the night before was still vivid in his mind, it had little to do with affection. She could have merely sought him out because of a biological function. An itch that she had needed him to take care of.

He glowered at her. The thought of being used like that pissed him off.

"Is the food okay?"

She looked up from her plate as she took a bite and nodded her head. "Yeah, it's fine." It always was. Kakashi was a really good cook.

"Tell me why you came back." Kakashi said all of a sudden, because he was feeling insecure and vulnerable and he really, really wanted to know.

Uzu looked up at him and choked a little bit on the half chewed food in her mouth. He shifted and reached up and thumped her on the back a few times and sat back as she took a second or so to clear her throat and look at him funny.

"Did you not want me to come back?" She asked, a pained expression on her face that made his heart constrict in his chest.

"No. That's not what I meant. I'm happy your back-" And it was true. He was. He wouldn't be getting paranoid on her and making her his prisoner if he wasn't happy that she was back. "I just want to know..." If she had thought of him. If she had laid awake some nights thinking of him, what he was doing and wondering if he was okay. He needed to know that he still held a piece of her heart, no matter how fragile or small. He could work wonders with just about anything as long as he knew that he had it.

Uzu sighed and put her plate on the table next to the couch and held her arms out to him. He blinked at her, a puzzled expression on his face and she smiled and motioned for him to move in closer.

He recognised the action she had just taken and knew it for what it was. She was going to comfort him like he used to comfort her, to wrap her arms around him and tell him what he needed to know. He set his plate down and gave his ninken a mean look as the dog moved in to steal something off of his plate then shifted so that his torso was settled between her legs and lay his head against her stomach and smiled a bit when she ran her fingers through his sweat damp hair.

"I thought of you every day, and every night. Everytime I laughed, and cried. Everytime I was safe, and everytime that I was hurt. You were never far from my mind." She had written him letters. At least ten five page long letters every day, of every month, of every year that she had been gone. She had wanted to tell him everything that she was thinking, seeing, and feeling.

She had mailed the letters to him a week ago before coming to the village and didn't expect them to show up in his mail box for at least another few days. He sighed and buried his face against the her stomach through his shirt. That was good. That was all he needed to hear.

It meant that even though they had been apart, that he had hurt her, she hadn't replaced him or given up on him. _I'll have to return the favor. _Kakashi thought as he pulled back away from her a bit. She kissed the scar over his left eye, trailing her lips along his cheek before pulling back away from him and letting him get back to his spot since his ninken had cleaned off his plate for him.

Kakashi stared at the dog in disbelief and growled as he stood up and muttered something akin to "Bad dog" and went to fix himself another plate. Uzu just giggled and picked up a piece of her sausage and tossed it to the dog grinning.

"Good boy."

Kakashi watched her from the kitchen, his lips curved up in a smile, ah-ha! So she had somehow encouraged his ninken to eat his food. It must have been when she was holding him, clever little fox. He walked out of the kitchen and sat back down on the floor at her feet and this time ate his food first. "Kakashi...you didn't tell me how you were doing while I was gone." Uzu said after a little while, Kakashi looked up at her and licked his lips.

He would'nt tell her that his heart had broken into pieces.

He wouldn't tell her that he sat in her room every night and cried for the first year or so.

He wouldn't tell her that he would have nightmares that she was dead in a ditch somewhere and wake up screaming, and shaking and couldn't eat or sleep or function for days after that.

He would'nt tell her how much he had missed her, not with his words anyways. But he had no problem showing her with his actions.

"I went on missions mostly." He said and almost flinched at the way he had just made the last four years sound. He had all but said that he had'nt bothered to look for her. He looked at her and waited for her to get that pained expression on her face or to start crying, but she just gave him a tight lipped smile and took his plate and grabbed hers and stood up and walked into the kitchen and put them in the sink.

"Uzu, I didn't mean that the way it sounded." Kakashi said as he jumped to his feet and followed her to the kitchen.

"I know." She said as she put the dishes in the sink and turned on the facet for a second before turning it off and looking at him from over her shoulder.

"I know that you looked for me. I know that you probably felt like you were going out of your mind-"

"That would be an understatment honey. I _was_ out of my mind." She turned around to face him and tilted her head to the side. She wondered if he even realised that he had started calling her honey.

"Are you any better now?" Did her presence in his life help him? Or hurt him.

He gave her a slow once over, his eyes stopping breifly to linger on her breasts as his pulse jumped a bit. That damn feeling of having his blood on fire was coming back again, stronger and more intense than before. His body hardened and his breath picked up a bit so that he was panting. He licked his suddenly dry lips and looked at her face and rasped out. "Not really." He was beginning to think that he was crazy or something.

Maybe her disappearance had fucked him over in more than one way, he just didn't know any more. All he knew was that he wanted her, badly. Right now.

"Your feeling the effects again, huh?" He nodded his head, no longer capable of speech and she quickly stripped off her panties and motioned for him to come to her.


	17. what have you been up too 2

Kakashi rolled off of her panting and shaking. His mind blank.

Jesus Christ. If they kept going like this, Uzu was going to get pregnant. Kakashi thought tiredly as soon as he was able too. "Are you on the pill?" He asked her curiously as he glanced over at Uzu. She cracked open her eyes for a second and swallowed a few times. Working her throat because her mouth was so dry.

"N-No." But if he was really worried about her getting pregnant, she knew a nifty little jutsu that could force his semen out of her body. She had learned it after she had had a pregnacy scare. Just a month or two after Shika had started raping her.

He had'nt been happy when she told him that she might be pregnant, and he had beat the ever loving hell out of her, but for that one week or so, he had refused to touch her in a sexual manner. Choosing instead to do his best to make her lose the demon spawn that she might have been carrying. She was'nt really sure which had been worse. The rapes or the beatings.

But both had taken an excessive toll on her body and her mind.

Kakashi was quiet for several seconds as his breathing returned to normal and he sighed. Well there was no helping it now. He really should have thought to ask her sooner, but whatever happened, he'd take care of her. His mind jumped from one thing to another and eventually he found himself wondering what she had been up too when she was gone. Sure he had asked earlier, and she had sort of answered, but he was still curious.

"Tell me what you've been up too these past four years. Where did you go? What did you see?"

Uzu glanced at him and sighed. She didn't really want to talk about that crap, she'd opened up enough today when she told Jiji everything. Besides, if she told him too much he might find out about other-more painful things, and she did'nt feel like talking, period. But she knew that she had to tell him something. So she opted for the lesser of two evils and decided to tell him about her training, collecting Gaara and eventually she would work her way up to telling him about what she knew of Itachi.

But not right now.

"I trained mostly...to learn how to control...uh, _it_. Ya know-" She got quiet for a second, deciding that it was in her best intrest not to tell him that Kyubbi was dead, and she had taken the demon's power into herself and _become_ the new _Kyubbi_. Feeling that her conversation with Kakashi would become very awkward, very quickly if she told him that. Kakashi paled a little bit and pushed himself up on his elbow and studied her, looken shaken to his core. "I spent a week or so in Sauna, sort of kidnapped the sand jiinchirkii. Traveled around the country. I worked as a mercenary for a year or so. Met up with a group of people called the Akutsuki-"

Kakashi had to school his emotions very carefully the second that she said the name of the orginsation that collected demon containers and stripped them of the beings inside along with their lives. His heart hammered in his chest as he felt his stomach lurch in horror and felt as if he was going to be ill. Since the day he had had her speak with Inoichi, the third Hokage had been investigating the group of missing nins, and the things he had found had been horrific.

The Akutsuki was not the type of group that you wanted to make an enemy of. And she had walked right into their lair and met up with them! He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh, because she was still alive, or if he wanted to throttle her for doing something _so_ stupid.

He focused on the rest of her conversation, trying to learn why she had been there with those people. "I helped kill five or six of their members-" _Oh is that all?_ She had helped kill a few of them. Now he really was going to throttle her. "Then picked up and left again and came back here."

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

It had only been five or six hours since Uzu had left the two males alone, and Itachi was bored out of his mind. Gaara was refusing to rise to his baiting, it had become boring to him so the man decided to get up and go walk around for a little bit and check out the woods in this particular part of the forest since he had'nt been here in a while. He was kind of curious to know how it had changed.

He walked out of the cave, climbed the embankment, and walked around the woods. Noting some old tree's that had fallen down, the few that had been struck by lightening, the few saplings that were growing beautifully. He was a good distance away form the cave when he heard a loud, almost shrill and girly scream coming from the cave and turned to see if he could see what that damn silly brat was into now.

There was a series of booms, that sounded like explosions and Itachi started running back towards the cave. He reached the drop off and was about to make his way down when Gaara came flying up, using his sand. His feet hit the ground next to Itachi and he took off running as fast as he could, his sand swirling in agitation around him as he went. Itachi frowned and decided to follow the boy and quickly caught up to him.

"What are you running for?"

"T-T-thingys! B-big! Scary!" Uh-huh. Well, he was getting no where fast. Itachi contemplated tripping the boy to stop him when he heard a loud roar behind them and paled a little bit.

What ever it was, it was big, probably a carnivore, and it was _pissed_. Itachi looked at Gaara, suddenly feeling panicked as he snarled. "What. Did. You. Do?"

"There was a baby...little tiny baby. It was cute-" Well, as cute as something covered in dry blood with rotted animal flesh in it's teeth could be at least. Itachi narrowed his dark eyes at him.

"You touched it, didn't you." It was'nt a question, it was an accusation. Gaara looked at him and almost tripped as he nodded.

"And then?" The irritated missing nin growled as the loud crashing behind them drew their attention. They both looked and Gaara made a choking sound. There was a shit load of trees being knocked over by what ever it was. And to make matters worse, the damn thing was gaining on them.

"It bit me." Gaara said as he slowed his pace and did this weird hop thing and lifted his leg to show Itachi the bite wound on his leg before he started running again.

"And then?"

Gaara bared his teeth at the older man. "They are fast, orginised and have tasted blood. Is there really anything else you need to know?"

Itachi gave him a mean look and then smiled, a nasty evil, creepy smile and said cheerfully. "I'm going to kill you before our sister gets back...I swear to fucking god."


	18. Chapter 18

Hello everyone.

I know that i have'nt been writing in the past few days, but I'm trying to work on several things at once and I sort of think I fried my brain or something.

I just have a quick announcment.

1) I have several new stories in the works.

I've been trying to updat several others, but so far nothing is clicking like it should.

2) I'm going to do an alternate version of What do you know. The one that I have posted now is all fluffy and nice. But I crave blood, and lots of dirty sex and violence. So I'm going to write an alternate version to the story posted now.

I wish I could say that it will be the same story, but I really doubt it will be.

Anyways, that's it.

So be patient, and I'll post something as soon as something clicks.


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